Leon,
Thanks for your response. I don't think, though, that this particular
ceramic is suffering from lime popping. In my experience, this causes the
loss from vessel surfaces of round flakes, thicker in the centre where the
inclusion was located. Also, doesn't this tend to happen soon after firing?
Instead, our pithos has what looks exactly like a vein of mineral running
through the centre of the sherds, parallel to the surface. So I'd be
tempted to go with the precipitated carbonate theory.
Kathy
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