Productions domestiques, productions spécialisées… et le reste ? Les différents types de productions céramiques néolithiques

The bibliography linked to the production specialization is very huge. Numerous methods of analysis and interpretations were proposed, but they do not still adapt to the specificities of the Neolithic ceramic productions characterized essentially by their low intensity and their great variability. Does this mean that the organization of the productions is unique and constant ? The case studies analyzed in this article, and which are not exhaustive, let on the contrary imagine the big variety of the forms that the potter activity could take during the Prehistory. On top of the domestic productions, certainly majority, we can recognize at least standardized and specialized productions and particular productions with a strong symbolic value. Demonstrate that the Neolithic ceramic productions are realized in a domestic frame is not still the most frequent exercise. These productions, realized by one or several potters of the house for the inhabitants of the same house, should be characterized essentially by local materials, relatively diversified shapes for the everyday life, technical or stylistic features peculiar to every house, production limiting itself to the renewal of the broken dishes, thus in low number and then not very standardized because not very habitual. The variability of the assemblages is often the only argument to define the domestic character of the Neolithic productions. It can nevertheless correspond to various forms of productions. The spatial analysis of the categories of pottery is the most relevant, still it is necessary to have sites and ceramic assemblages relatively well preserved. Among the criteria used to discriminate between the productions, the stylistic aspects and the composition of paste are generally favoured in the studies on the Neolithic. It is also possible to track more exactly the potters and their specificities by criteria linked to the apprenticeship stages. In a domestic production, all the stages, from the clumsy vases of the novice up to perfect vessels of the well-skilled potter, should be discovered within the same house. Analyses led from the design execution of Neolithic painted vessels illustrate this method. It is more difficult to apply the notion of specialization to the Neolithic pottery, on one hand because the definition is still discussed and on the other hand because the cases without ambiguity are really rare. The standardization of the productions, the specific skills of the potters, the repetitiveness of products and their particular distribution are the major criteria to define a specialized production. For the Neolithic, only vases used as mould for salt loaf correspond to the whole definition. However, some authors also include in the category «specialized » productions of low intensity and which are not standardized. These productions are essentially characterized by their context of use, ritual or funerary.