This article presents the results of the analysis of archaeological ceramics collected during landscape surveys in the Vidarbha of Maharashtra, India; and offers the first attempt at a regional pottery typology for this area. Here, as in many other parts of South Asia, the pottery from archaeological sites have been subject to considerable scrutiny. Yet, so far approaches to their study have focussed on mainly their surface colour and feel. This has resulted in overly simplistic typologies that do not (and cannot) accommodate the full range of variation that exists within a ceramic assemblage, and so limit their value as archaeological evidence. Addressing this, we apply a chaîne opératoire -based approach to the analysis of a ceramic assemblage that we have been developing in this region. This results in a much more complex and detailed pottery typology than has so far been achieved. Throughout this study we also identify points of comparison with familiar parallels published elsewhere. In doing so, the resulting typology, while by no means the final word on the matter, provides a valuable and flexible resource that others working in this region and neighbouring areas can use for their own analyses and research. Moreover, in shifting the bases of categorisation and classification to the ways that pottery was made, we are able to incorporate far more of the variation that exists in the material itself. Indeed, the amount of variation can be somewhat bewildering in comparison to the standard (limiting) typological categories that populate earlier reports, and forces us to question those frameworks. Yet, we argue that it is precisely this sort of uncertainty that has to be embraced if the study of archaeological ceramics for the region of the ancient Vidarbha is going to continue to develop as a meaningful area of archaeological enquiry.

中文翻译：

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接受变化并拥抱不确定性：在南亚考古学中创建区域陶器类型学

本文介绍了印度马哈拉施特拉邦维达尔巴（Vidarbha）风景调查期间收集的考古陶瓷的分析结果；并首次尝试了该地区的区域陶器类型学。与南亚的许多其他地区一样，这里的考古遗址的陶器也受到了严格的审查。但是，到目前为止，他们的研究方法主要集中在表面颜色和感觉上。这导致过于简单化的类型学无法（也不能）适应陶瓷组合物中存在的全部变化，因此限制了其作为考古证据的价值。为了解决这个问题，我们采用了基于chanéneopératoire的方法来分析我们在该地区开发的陶瓷组件。与迄今所实现的相比，这导致了更为复杂和详细的陶器类型学。在整个研究过程中，我们还确定了与其他地方发表的相似文献的比较点。这样一来，所得到的类型学虽然绝不是此事的最终定论，但却提供了宝贵而灵活的资源，该地区和邻近地区的其他人员可以将其用于自己的分析和研究。此外，通过将分类和分类的基础转移到制作陶器的方式，我们能够吸收更多材料本身存在的变化。确实，与填充早期报告的标准（限制性）类型学类别相比，变化的数量可能有些令人困惑，并迫使我们质疑这些框架。然而，