Pottery archeology

What is pottery?

Fired clay that is made into various shapes to have various purposes

Firing causes permanent ____ _____

chemical change

Often temper is added:

 materials added to clay to change material properties and provide more structural durability

Methods of making pottery

Handmade and wheel made 

Handmade pottery

• pottery found in North America pre-contact

  • Pinching 

  • Coiling 

  • Paddle and anvil 

Wheel made pottery

• Use of pottery wheel

• Developed in China and Mesopotamia

Stages of pottery

• Raw Material acquisition 

• Raw Material preparation 

• Forming/shaping 

• Decoration (surface treatment)

• Firing

Pottery organization

Cottage/household industry and craft specialization

Household production

• Production is for members of the same household

  • Smaller and less intensive scale of production 

• Production roles are fluid 

  • Scheduling is more fluid 

• Learning process tends to be more flexible

Craft specialization

• Production is for or both members insides and outside household 

• Larger scale and more intensive production 

  • Often associated with a social hierarchy controlling production  

  • Crafts specialists with workshops

• More rigid formalized learning

Rim letter

E

Neck letter

C

Body letter

B-A

Ways to study pottery

1. Macroscopic pottery traits

2. Microscopic pottery traits 

3. Residue analysis 

4. Experimental archaeology 

5. Ethnoarchaeology

Macroscopic Pottery Traits

• Pottery Decoration 

  • Focus on identities through material culture  

• Formal traits 

  • Focus on technological decisions 

• Two methods can be combined to look at social relation between identity and technology

Petrography

Microscopic pottery trait

Definition: method to study temper and paste of pottery

• Identify sources of raw materials

• Identify technological decisions related to social and ritual practices

Residue Analysis

• Effective to understand use of pottery

• Effective to understand foodways 

• Effective to collect data for carbon-based dating methods

Experimental Archaeology

• Observer has control over variables to replicate past material things and past decisions    

• Effective to understand production decisions related to interactions between clay and potter

• Cannot study social or ritual processes

Ethnoarchaeology

• Archaeological approach that studies living groups to investigate questions related to past practices

• Effective for studying broader chaîne opératoire stages

• Allows for investigation of social and ritual questions 

• Important to recognize that ethnographic analogs cannot be directly tied to past behaviour