Investigating the Core of the Urban Asset of the Site: Study of the Pottery from the 2017-2018 and 2019 Excavations

During the 2017-2018 and 2019 campaigns, an astonishing amount of ceramics was collected in the Trench 9. Focusing on Building 1, the preliminary analysis shows that the ceramic material is not in its primary depositional context. Indeed, it has been proved that the three rooms of this Building were filled with the soil taken from the area outside it. The pottery analysis confirms that these human activities took place in a short time span during the late 12th-early 13th century CE. This was a decaying period of the city life, as testified by the finding of numerous vessels bearing traces of reuse and restoration after their breakage. Moreover, the study of the pottery corpus of Banbhore also gives interesting information concerning changes in technology and fashion of the local ceramic manufacture throughout the centuries, and the intra-regional and international trading networks in which Banbhore was involved during the Islamic period.