Vessel Anatomy and Pottery Typology: Jars, Bowls, Plates, Pans, and Their Attributes

Introduction: purpose of studying vessel form

• Archaeology often distinguishes vessel types to understand function, production, and cultural patterns.
• Common vessel types in the Midwest, Southeast, and Mississippi River valley include jars, bowls, plates, pans, jugs, beakers, mini jars/bowls, and rare types like stumpware.
• The focus is on basic vessel anatomy and how to talk about and differentiate forms today, with labs to cover detailed analysis later in the course.
• Big-picture questions: What do the different parts of a pot tell us about how it was used, who made it, and why it was decorated or not decorated?
• Acknowledgement of some debate about minutiae: students may find this detailed work tedious, but patterns illuminate subsistence, cooking, storage, and social practices.

Key evolutionary and regional context

• Over roughly 800+ years of prehistory in the American Bottom near Saint Louis, there is a lot of change in the vessels used and how they relate to social organization (e.g., Cahokia chiefdom and maize agriculture).
• The introduction of corn (maize) around ca. 800–900 CE is linked to changes in vessel use (e.g., seeds stored in special jars, cooking/cooking corn, storage, serving patterns).
• Large data sets (e.g., >$15{,}000$ individual vessels tabulated in some studies) reveal broad patterns in vessel diversity and usage.
• Patterns of diversity often increase during specific phases (e.g., Lowman phase) when chiefdoms form around maize agriculture.
• Some vessel innovations are tied to subsistence needs (e.g., seed jars for long-term storage).
• Pottery remains a cool, enduring art form and a key source of information about past lifeways.

The anatomy of a vessel (the catchall diagram you’ll see repeatedly)

• Right-hand side of the diagram: base, body, shoulder, neck, rim, and lip.
• Base: bottom of the pot; supports the vessel on a surface.
• Body: the main curved surface from base up to roughly halfway; where much of the volume is contained.
• Shoulder: inflection zone between body and neck; often a key region for decoration or cultural typology (highly angled shoulders vs. gradual inflection).
• Neck: the portion above the shoulder, between shoulder and rim; a common location for decoration on Mississippian pottery.
• Rim: the top edge of the vessel, where the body curves into the lip; often the most informative part for identifying vessel type and function.
• Lip: the very top edge, sometimes thickened or decorated.
• Decoration and surface treatment can occur along various zones (neck, shoulder, rim) but are especially common on the neck and shoulder in Mississippian pottery.
• Vessel surfaces vary by culture and function: cord-marked surfaces, smooth surfaces, burnished surfaces, and other textures reflect production choices and cultural traditions.

Why do we care about these features?

• Function and design: Different forms (jar, bowl, plate, pan) reflect different uses (cooking, storage, serving, ceremonial display).
• Production cues: Temper, surface treatment, and decoration indicate craft traditions and technological choices (e.g., cord-wrapped paddles, burnishing).
• Decoration as social signal: Decoration patterns and motifs can reflect cultural identity, ceremonial use, or status (e.g., elite Cahokia motifs like Ramey pieces).
• Regional variation and exchange: Comparing forms across sites (e.g., Turpin, Angel site, Fort Ancient) shows how people moved ideas and pottery-making traditions.
• Quantitative patterns: Large assemblages enable correlations between vessel form and subsistence strategies (e.g., maize cultivation, corn processing, seed storage).
• Ethical and practical implications: Interpreting vessel use requires careful consideration of context; fragmentary assemblages demand careful rim-shard analysis to avoid over-interpretation.

Jars: morphology, function, and examples

• General characteristics: Jars have a distinct shoulder and neck; large vessel orifice; can be globular or spheroidal in shape; sometimes a flared rim.
• Common forms discussed: Mississippi plain jar (typical after ca. 1000 CE in Midwest/Southeast).
• Specific profile discussed: Mississippi plain jar tends to have a globular body, a shoulder around the upper body, and a neck that curves outward before a flared rim.
• Functional discussion: Mississippi plain jars are often interpreted as suitable for simmering and cooking over fire; some examples appear to have handles for lifting away from heat or steam; some forms may have been suspended over fires.
• Variations and decoration:
  • Some rims are flared or have ribbed or impressed decorations around the lip (e.g., fingernail or dowel impressions).
  • Some jars show evidence of burnishing and a black, low-oxygen firing to produce a dark surface.
  • Ornamented jars include motifs such as the Ramey interlocking spiral motif (elite Cahokia/pottery of the American Bottom) and others where kernels or residues hint at ceremonial use.
• Notable examples:
  • Mississippi plain jar: Globular form, outward-curved neck, flared rim; common across the Midwest/Southeast.
  • Adena conical jar (Early Woodland, Ohio): Conical body with bottom point; designed for direct fire or suspension; some variants show handles and possible tripod use.
  • Ramey jar: Elite Cahokia motif with interlocking spiral; associated with ceremonial contexts; some specimens show burned kernels suggesting ritual aspects.
  • Cord-marked variants: Some jars show cord-wrapped paddle marks; production may include smoothing over cords to alter surface texture.
• Observations and discussion prompts:
  • The same basic jar morphology appears across multiple cultural regions (Fort Ancient, Ancestral Puebloan, Chinese forms), indicating wide adoption of the jar form for cooking/storage across cultures.
  • Cord-marking and smoothing patterns can reveal choices about tradition vs. innovation, and regional mixing in places like Turpin where people from multiple regions lived together.

Bowls: forms, features, and decoration

• Core characteristics: Bowls are typically hemispherical or near-hemispherical with a relatively small opening; they often lack a pronounced neck and shoulder as seen in jars.
• Notable subforms:
  • Hemispheric bowls: Almost a perfect half-sphere, sometimes with small handles or lug handles.
  • Bellied/curved bowls: Rim profiles curve forward and inward, sometimes with a slightly flaring lip.
  • Festoons: Repeated draped motifs around the edge, a decorative technique seen in some bowls (delicate and thin-walled in well-made pieces).
• Decoration and function:
  • Bowls generally less decorated than elite jar forms, but some examples show interior or upper-shoulder decoration or slips (e.g., Monks Mound red bowls).
  • Decoration can imply non-utilitarian function or ceremonial use in some contexts, though many bowls were utilitarian.
• Notable phenomena:
  • Four-quadrant motif in some bowls (reflecting a four-directional cosmology common in many indigenous American traditions).
  • Festoons as a specific decorative technique that requires careful construction to avoid structural failure in thin walls.
• Practical notes:
  • Bowls can be identified by a lack of a strong neck/shoulder and by the profile where the rim sits above a curved body.
  • Rim profiles and lip shapes help differentiate bowls from jars when only sherds remain.

Plates and pans: distinctive features and uses

• Plates (negative-painted):
  • Often large, flat-bottomed plates with rims that are distinct from the bowls/jars.
  • Decoration frequently inside the plate, including complex motifs such as the owl image and sun-circle motif; common in Angel site assemblages.
  • Interiors are used for display or ceremonial purposes; many plates appear in house walls or domestic contexts rather than chief's mounds.
  • Negative painting technique creates contrast by painting background and leaving reddish or lighter figures to stand out.
• Plates: social and decorative significance
  • The plates from Angel site are notable for elaborate interior decoration; many plates were found in houses rather than near elites’ residences, suggesting use in domestic or ceremonial settings beyond elite display.
  • The presence of plates in wall trenches within houses hints at social practices around feasting or commemoration that involved special serving ware.
• Pans (salt pans):
  • Large, heavy vessels used for processing brine to evaporate and collect salt; examples are rare due to fragility and breakage during use.
  • Typical pan features include a broad body and a relatively shallow depth, with little to no lip or rim; when preserved, they are thick-walled and sometimes concave.
  • Ethnographic and archaeological evidence supports their role in salt production, which connects to settlement patterns near salt springs and the importance of salt for diet and trade.
• Jugs (sometimes called straight-neck jars):
  • Large globular profile with a stem-like neck that is relatively straight and narrow compared to jars.
  • Opening is small relative to vessel diameter, suitable for storage and controlled pouring; often capped with a lid.
  • Some examples feature decorative motifs (e.g., ocher or animal imagery) and can be regionally distinctive.

Profiles, rims, and the importance of rim work in identification

• The rim is often the most diagnostic part for small sherds; rim profiles help identify whether a fragment belonged to a jar, bowl, plate, or pan.
• Jars generally show an inward- and outward-curving rim with a pronounced shoulder transition; plates have a more circular or flat rim with a broader profile.
• Bowls show more vertical or forward-curving profiles, sometimes with a carination (a distinct bend in the rim) or camber (a curved, somewhat angular profile).
• The technique of drawing rim profiles (often to a two-scale diagram) is a standard methodological tool in ceramic analysis and is used during labs to classify fragments.
• When orientation is uncertain (inside vs outside), rim sherds may be indeterminate, but consistent, repeatable profiles often clarify the vessel type.

Decoration, surface treatment, and production choices

• Cord marking: Produced with cords and paddles; some vessels show cord-marked surfaces below the shoulder or across the entire surface; some examples show smoothing over cord marks, indicating deliberate surface modification.
• Burnishing: A polished, shiny surface on the upper areas of some vessels, often seen on more refined pieces (e.g., burnished rims or shoulder areas).
• Surface textures reflect production choices, resource availability, and cultural preferences; cord-marking can reveal lineage and training traditions across generations.
• Some regions show a mix ofCord-marked and smooth surfaces within the same vessel, suggesting hybrid techniques or transitional styles.

Case studies and notable motifs

• Ramey motif (Cahokia/American Bottom): Interlocking spiral design seen on some elite Cahokia pottery; discussed in relation to ceremonial or ritual use rather than everyday cooking, though some specimens contain residues that complicate interpretations.
• Monks Mound red bowls: Example of a decorated bowl type with vivid red slip; demonstrates high level of artistry in Mississippian pottery.
• Angel site plates: Negative-painted plates with sun-circle motifs and four-quadrant geometry; most plates found in domestic contexts (house walls), suggesting domestic display and ritual use alongside daily life.
• Sunwatch Fort Ancient jar: Interlocking incised lines; demonstrates cross-regional motifs and jar form in a Fort Ancient context.
• Ancestral Puebloan (4 Corners): Corrugated jars representing cross-cultural adoption of jar forms in different ecological settings.
• Central Mississippi Valley jugs with decorative motifs: Firewood-like patterns on bottles; regional stylistic variation.

Practical lab insights: working with sherds and 3D models

• Rim-first approach: When working with fragmentary assemblages, start by determining if a fragment is a rim.
• Orientation: Identify inside vs outside to infer vessel form; if indeterminate, you may label it as indeterminate vessel form.
• Use rim profiles for quick classification: jars vs bowls vs plates vs pans; draw two-scale rim profiles for documentation.
• 3D reconstructions and refits: Reconstructed vessels (like some Adena or fort-ancient examples) help visualize full shape and function; some reconstructions reveal how pots would have sat on a tripod or how they were heated over a fire.
• Interpretation caveats: Decorative choices do not always indicate domestic or ceremonial use; context (household vs mound) matters for interpretation.

Quick recap: how to describe each major form

• Jars: Base + body + shoulder + neck + rim; large opening; often cord-marked; sometimes burnished; may have handles; used for cooking or storage; examples include Mississippi plain jars and conical Adena jars.
• Bowls: Base + body; hemispherical profile; no distinct neck/shoulder; sometimes decorative, sometimes not; may have small handles; often utilitarian but can be artistically crafted (e.g., festooned rims).
• Plates: Flat or slightly concave bottom; interior decoration is common; exterior is often plain; large for feasting or display; negative-painted examples from Angel site show sophisticated iconography inside.
• Pans: Large salt pans used for brine evaporation; thick-walled and mostly fragmentary due to use and breakage; rare to find intact examples.
• Jugs: Globular with straight or slightly curved neck; small opening; designed for storage and controlled pouring; may have decorative elements; some regional examples show unique motifs.

Connections to broader themes in archaeology

• The jar form is cross-cultural and persists across continents; its ubiquity suggests practical universality in cooking and storage needs.
• Decoration often reflects social structure, ritual practice, and exchange networks; elite motifs (e.g., Ramey) contrast with everyday jars used by common people.
• Technological choices (temper, surface finish, firing conditions) reveal knowledge transmission, regional trade, and adaptation to available resources.
• The interpretation of ceramics requires careful attention to context, production choices, and function, avoiding simplistic attributions based on appearance alone.

Key terms to know (glossary in context)

• Base, Body, Shoulder, Neck, Rim, Lip: Basic anatomical parts used to describe pots.
• Temper: Materials added to clay to improve working and firing properties.
• Cord marking: Surface pattern created by cords or paddles; may be left visible or smoothed over later.
• Burnish: Polished surface resulting from rubbing; gives a sheen.
• Ramey motif: Interlocking spirals associated with Cahokia elites.
• Monks Mound red bowls: Decorated red-slip bowls associated with elite contexts.
• Negative painting: Decoration achieved by painting backgrounds or negative spaces that contrast with the base color.
• Festoons: Repeated draped or ribbon-like decorative motifs around an edge.
• Conical jar (Adena): Early Woodland jar form with a conical body and often a pointed base or suspension features.
• Salt pan: Large vessel used for evaporating brine to extract salt.

Quick references to numbers mentioned

• Time span for some regional patterns: roughly $ext{ca. } 1000 ext{ to } ca. 500 ext{ years ago}$
• Large datasets in analyses: numbers such as >15{,}000 vessels in a single study; discussions of upwards of $extsim 10^6$ sherds in some contexts.
• Core anthropological point: maize/maize agriculture becomes central to subsistence and vessel use in the Cahokia-era Midwest; the pattern of diversity expands during the Lowman phase in Cahokia.

Notes on lab-ready takeaways

• Always start with rim and profile to classify fragmentary sherds.
• When in doubt, assess interior decoration, rim lip, and shoulder shaping to distinguish jars from bowls and plates.
• Be aware of cultural context when interpreting decoration: similar forms appear across diverse regions, but motifs and usage can differ dramatically by site and culture.
• Consider the broader subsistence context (e.g., maize agriculture, salt production) to interpret vessel function and placement in daily life.