tackling these concerns; it has been widely used to characterize
pottery production technology and even post-depositional alterations
(e.g. Orton and Hughes, 2013: 172e173; Quinn, 2013:
204e210). Yet, petrography has never been deployed to characterize
the pre-depositional processes that take place between the
time vessels are fractured and their definitive discard. This paper
contributes towards this endeavor. First a visual assessment and a
re-fitting operation were carried out with a collection of handmade
ceramics. Then, 16 non-conjoining paired sherds were
selected, sectioned and petrographically examined. Subsequently
their photomicrographs were processed through digital image
analyses. A scanning electron microscope was used to compare the
nature of some mineral inclusions. This procedure has allowed for
the testing of several hypothetical sherd-to-vessel associations
with important consequences for understanding how these ceramics
entered the archaeological record. This new method suggests
that there is much to learn from these often disregarded
stages of the life-cycle of archaeological ceramics, which have
been referred to as their ‘life after the break’ (Chapman and
Gaydarska, 2007: 81e112).