Abstract
The spatial arrangement, size distribution, and shape of internal pores in several archaeological ceramic vessels from the Akterek burial site at Zhambyl District of Almaty Region, Republic of Kazakhstan were studied using neutron tomography. The internal pores were segmented from the obtained neutron data and the porosity value for the ancient ceramic samples was calculated. Analysis of the structural tomography data showed that the ceramic materials contained a large number of relatively small pores, with an average diameter less than 1.5 mm, while some ceramic objects had larger pores or cavities exceeding 2 mm in diameter. In addition, there are differences in the morphological parameters of large and small pores. It was suggested that these large pores formed as a result of temperature changes during the firing of the pottery ceramics. The relative shifting of Raman peaks in the carbon group in amorphous carbon, as an indicator of the firing temperature of ceramic materials, confirms this assumption.