Mineral magnetic and XRD spectroscopic studies to investigate the firing temperatures of archeological potsherds

•Mineral magnetic and XRD spectroscopic experiments made to study firing temperatures of ancient pottery.•The firing temperature window of 500 to 800 °C identified using mineral magnetism, and that of 500–600 °C using XRD.•The laboratory experiments show great flexibility of protocols to suite a large variety of pottery sources and technology. Determination of firing temperatures of archaeological ceramics is crucial in understanding technological practices adopted by the ancient humans; and such methods are still experimental. We apply rock magnetic and XRD spectroscopic studies with laboratory heating experiments to simulate and measure the firing temperatures on archaeological potsherds from Deccan Province (India). The parameters: mass specific susceptibility (χlf), ratio of relative concentration of antiferro- to ferrimagnetic oxides, frequency dependence of susceptibility (χfd) and coercivity of remanence (B(0)CR) found most sensitive to thermal changes, enabling a comparison between simulated samples and the ancient pottery. These magnetic parameters estimated firing temperature window of 500 to 800 °C for the ancient pottery samples. Whereas, XRD spectra with distinct 2θ peaks at 6.160, 9.980, 19.820, 23.640, 26.70, 27.640, 29.840, 35.50 and 42.160 constrain thermal window between 500 and 600 °C. We infer that a plateau of maximum temperatures for >3 h. are essential for transformation of ferri- to antiferromagnetic oxides. Since these changes are dependent upon the raw material used and the variants in heating practices (rates-, duration- and open/closed heating); the present approach facilitates a combination of protocols to be adopted for independent case studies and provinces. It enables detailed and rapid data- based estimation for large population of potsherds significant to study the pyrotechnology and trade practices in routine and advanced archeology.