The present study is centred on the analysis of ceramic breakage and alteration approached through 2D morphometric computational techniques. Just like sediment particles, the size and shape of a fragment is altered under conditions of abrasion and breakage. While some of these conditions can occur by the intention of the human agent, most of them appear during or after deposition, which can include actions like trampling, transportation (by aquatic or non-aquatic means), bioturbation, and the ploughing of fields. It follows that the study of morphological changes in specimens can point towards the specific abrasive or breaking processes to which fragments were submitted. The aim of this study is to explore the use of image analysis for ceramic fragment morphometry, and how this methodology can help answer questions of how people dealt with broken pottery in the past, as well as understand the post-depositional conditions of potsherd assemblages. Image analysis of ceramic materials from the Early Neolithic site of Călineşti-Oaş (Mara Mureş Province, Romania) is performed through ImageJ/Fiji and Matlab software, where both the dimensions and the shape description of fragments are estimated. The results obtained shed light on ploughing and selective transportation processes affecting the assemblages, which contradict with the conventional landfill analogy for explaining the deposition of materials in pits.
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