Journal of Archaeological Science 1990, 17, 373-381

The Influence of Surface Treatment on Heating

Effectiveness of Ceramic Vessels
Michael B. Schiffera

(Received 16 March 1989, revised manuscript accepted 29 January 1990)

Tests were carried out on miniature ceramic vessels to ascertain the influence of various
traditional surface treatments on heating effectiveness (the rate at which a vessel,
placed over a heat source, raises the temperature of water). The principal findings are
(I) interior and exterior surface treatments do markedly affect heating effectiveness;
indeed, there is an inverse relationship between surface permeability (as measured by
initial absorption tests) and heating effectiveness, (2) impermeable interior surfaces,
which the potter or pot user can create by application of resin or other gunk, produce
excellent heating effectiveness, and (3) once the interior surface is made impermeable,
exterior surface treatments have no appreciable influence on heating effectiveness.
Keywords: CERAMIC TECHNOLOGY, SURFACE TREATMENT OF
CERAMICS, CERAMIC PERMEABILITY, HEATING EFFECTIVENESS,
COOKING PRACTICES.

Introduction
Ceramic cooking vessels are ubiquitous among pottery-using peoples and their sherds are
often the most abundant items in the archaeological record. In our efforts to extract
chronological and cultural information from these common artifacts, as Braun (1983) has
noted, we tend to forget that cooking pots were used for cooking. Braun (1983) further
points out that aspects of cooking pot design, including shape, wall thickness, and temper
size, may have been selected to enhance cooking-related performance characteristics, such
as thermal shock resistance and impact resistance.
During the past several years, a number of investigators have built on Braun's insights
and initiated experimental research to unravel the relationships between technical choices
and performance characteristics of cooking pots (for general treatments, see Bronitsky,
1986; Rice, 1987). For example, Bronitsky & Hamer (1986) examined the effects of temper
type and quantity on thermal shock resistance. Similarly, Schiffer & Skibo (1987; Skibo
et al., 1989) explored, among other issues, the influence of temper type on heating
effectiveness. Not surprisingly, the latter investigators found-in confirmity with
theoretical predictions-that sand (and presumably other mineral tempers) improve heat-
ing effectiveness relative to untempered and organic tempered pastes (for other effects of
mineral temper, see Vaz Pinto et al., 1987; Skibo et al., 1989). The present paper reports
•Laboratory of Traditional Technology, Department of Anthropology, University
of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, U.S.A.

373
0305-4403/90/040373 +09 $03.00/0 © 1990 Academic Press Limited
374 M. B. SCHIFFER

the results of new experiments focusing on the response of heating effectiveness to differ-
ences in interior and exterior surface treatments.
It goes without saying that heating effectiveness is but one of many performance charac-
teristics that can influence the design of cooking pots. Cooking practices vary widely
within and between societies, depending on factors such as what is being cooked, how
often and for how long, and with which fuels. Thus, different cooking activities can require
vessels that emphasize different performance characteristics. In addition, even cooking
pots can have important social and ideological functions; the latter may exact compro-
mises in design that favour appearance over thermal performance. In short, only under
some conditions is heating effectiveness important in cooking pot design. As a working
hypothesis, I suggest that heating effectiveness is more likely to be weighted heavily in the
design process when (l) cooking vessels do not have significant symbolic functions, (2)
each cooking episode is time consuming----e.g. on the order of l h or more, and (3) fuel is
scarce or costly.
In the archaeological and ethnographic literatures one occasionally finds statements
proposing that a particular surface treatment improves the thermal performance of cook-
ing pots. For example, some investigators have suggested that texturing a vessel's exterior
enhances heat transfer to its contents because a larger surface area is in contact with the
fire (cf. Rice, 1987: 138). Young & Stone (1990) evaluated this hypothesis experimentally
and found that corrugation (a form of texturing used in the American southwest) did not
improve heating effectiveness over identical, uncorrugated pots. However, potters in
traditional societies apply many other surface treatments to cooking pots, and some of
these may enhance heating effectiveness. For example, gunk or resins are sometimes used
on a cooking pot's interior. It is also known that certain surface treatments, such as
painting, are uncommon on cooking vessels documented in ethnographic contexts
(Henrickson & McDonald, 1983: 631 ). The present study contributes to an understanding
of these patterns by establishing, through experiment, fundamental relationships between
surface treatments and heating effectiveness.
The general plan of the experiment is to test the heating effectiveness of miniature
vessels having varied surface treatments. Water is heated in the pots over an open flame in
a simulated cooking test. Heating effectiveness, then, is a function of the rate at which the
temperature of the water rises (Skibo et al., 1989). (It is assumed that vessels having good
heating effectiveness are, overall, more fuel-efficient.) Comparisons are made to ascertain
which surface treatments perform best and which worst. Miniatures are employed because
their manufacture requires much less effort than full-size pots.

Experimental Methods
In order to assess the possible influence of surface treatments, one must hold constant all
other technical choices that can affect heating effectiveness. For example, vessels must be
of identical size and shape, be made from one paste, and be fired at the same temperature.
To meet these requirements, vessels were made n a one-piece plaster mold that was
formed with the blunt end of a plastic "L'eggs" pantihose container. A fine-grained
commercial clay (Westwood EM-210) was mixed with generous amounts of 16, 30, and
60-mesh quartz sand, yielding a heavily tempered paste, similar to that of many cooking
pots. Paste composition and techniques of construction were identical to those used for
miniature vessels in recent tests of evaporative cooling effectiveness (for details, consult
Schiffer, 1988).
Six interior and four exterior treatments were applied in all combinations, for a total of
24 vessels (see Schiffer, 1988 for information on techniques of surface treatment). The
interior treatments are: (1) finger-smooth, (2) polish, (3) low-iron (LFe) slip and polish,
 HEATING EFFECTIVENESS ON CERAMIC VESSELS 375

(4) LFe slip, polish, and smudge, (5) high-iron (HFe) slip, polish, smudge, and (6) resin
coated (the resin was polyurethane varnish). The four exterior surface treatments are: (1)
textured, (2) finger-smoothed, (3) LFe slip and polish, and (4) HFe slip, polish, and
smudge. Table 1 shows the interior and exterior treatments of all test vessels.
After application of surface treatments (except resin and smudging), vessels were dried
at 80 ° C for several hours, then fired in a computer-controlled kiln at 750 ° C with a 1-h
soak. [Smudging was carried out on refired vessels-see Schiffer (1988) for details.]
Completed vessels are 4· 1 cm high and 6·9 cm in maximum diameter.
Previous experiments in the Laboratory of Traditional Technology had identified an
influence of vessel permeability on heating effectiveness (e.g. Skibo et al., 1989; Young &
Stone, 1990). In order to quantify these effects, the initial absorption of vessel interiors
and exteriors was measured. The vessel was first weighed dry, then 15 ml of distilled water
was added. After 60 s the water was quickly poured out and the vessel wiped with a
paper towel and reweighed. Weight gain directly indicates initial absorption.To measure
exterior absorption, pots (open-side up) were partially immersed, in a bowl of water for
60 sand weight gain was recorded. These tests were applied to all vessels except those with
resin interiors (Tables 1 and 2).
Three tests of heating effectiveness were conducted, which are now described briefly in
the order in which they were carried out; this differs from the order of presentation of
results below. Because a pilot study had shown that certain surface treatments are
damaged during testing, the most behaviourally relevant test was done first. In test 1, all
vessels (except those with resin-coated interiors) were soaked for 40 h in distilled water.
(Saturation of vessel walls was needed to simulate the process of slow cooking with
permeable pots.) Immediately before testing, a vessel was removed from the water and
wiped with a paper towel. Test 2, on the other hand, which began with dry vessels, is
thought to mimic only the first several minutes of the cooking process. (Because the
present study is most interested in problems of cooking for longer periods, when fuel
consumption is consequential, test 1is thought to be more behaviourally relevant than test
2.) Test 3 examined the effects of exterior surface treatment on the heating effectiveness of
impermeable vessels. Vessels were made impermeable by the application of two coats of
resin (polyurethane varnish) to the interiors.
Testing procedures were identical in the three tests. The vessel was placed into a ring,
which held it snugly near the rim. The ring was fixed to a stand and suspended over a
diminutive bunsen burner. The height of the ring was adjusted to maintain a constant
distance between the vessel's base and the bunsen burner. During the test, the vessel was
covered by square ceramic floor tile, 7·75 in. on a side, that rested directly on its rim. A hole
in the centre of the cover tile was plugged by a rubber stopper containing a thermometer
for monitoring water temperature. Twenty-five seconds after the water (25 ml) was placed
in the vessel, the bunsen burner was ignited and the cover tile put into position; the times
required to reach 30 ° , 50 ° , 70 ° and 90 ° C were then recorded. The burner was shut off
immediately after the 90 ° reading. Finally, in tests 1 and 2, water remaining in the pot
(after testing) was poured into a graduated cylinder to provide an indication of water lost
through the vessel wall.

Results
The following discussion of results uses the time (ins) required for the water to reach 90 ° C.
(In all tests, the water initially was at room temperature-around 24 ° C.)
Test 2 (heating with dry pots) yielded a range of times from 138-187 s (for raw data,
see Table 1). When these data are aggregated by surface treatment type, separately for
interiors and exteriors, some interesting patterns emerge (Table 2). It is clear that both
 Table 1. Surface treatments of test vessels and results of experiments

Test I Test 2 Test 3

Interior Exterior Time to H,0 Time to H,O Time to
Vessel Interior Exterior absorption absorption 90 ° loss 90 ° loss 90 °
no. surface surface (g) (g) (s) (ml) Spalling (s) (ml) (s)

30 Resin Textured - - 171 l·0 168 0·4 168t

31 Resin FS - 191 1·2 187 0·8 263
32 Resin S/P - - 172 l· l 166 0·1 229
33 Resin HFe S/P/S - - 183 0·8 175 0·0 168t
34 FS Textured 2·67 5·21 720* 23·4 191 8·9 209
35 FS FS 2·54 4·60 468 13·5 174 7·0 218
36 FS SP 2·56 3· 15 243 3·2 + 156 6·9 not testedt
37 FS HFe S/P/S 2·46 2·89 195 1·2 + 141 7·8 201
38 Polish Textured 2·36 5·01 496 13·5 178 7·8 193
39 Polish FS 2·25 4·53 503 13·8 181 7·0 201
40 Polish S/P 2·38 2·99 234 3.4 + 147 5·6 209
41 Polish HFe S/P/S 2·17 2-91 177 1·2 + 141 4·8 188
42 S/P Textured 1·58 5·29 486 13·1 160 5·3 209
43 S/P FS 1·64 4·65 492 14·2 159 5·8 209
44 S/P S/P 1·59 3·26 233 4·0 + 138 4·2 199
45 S/P HFeS/P/S l ·55 2·89 221 2·0 + 145 4·2 214
46 LFeS/P/S Textured 0·94 5·36 245 4·8 144 4·8 222
47 LFe S/P/S FS 0·69 4·71 318 7·0 !53 4·0 204
48 LFeS/P/S S/P 0·59 3·26 219 2·3 + 144 3·5 202
49 LFe S/P/S HFe S/P/S 1·26 2·51 212 3·0 + 141 4·4 206
50 HFe S/P/S Textured 0·62 5·32 290 6·0 142 4·2 203
51 HFe S/P/S FS 0·81 4·60 272 5·4 141 4-4 199
52 HFeS/P/S S/P 0·77 3·13 220 3·5 139 4·2 138t
53 HFe S/P/S HFe S/P/S 1·56 2·68 224 3·0 + 140 4·5 199

*Test diseontinued after 12 min; water temperature had reached only 84 ° C.

tThese vessels were tested last, after a visible increase in strength of burner flame.
tVessel misplaced after test 2.
(FS = Finger-smooth; S/P = slip and polish; LFe S/P/S =low-iron slip, polish and smudge; HFe S/P/S = high-iron slip, polish and smudge).
 HEATING EFFECTIVENESS ON CERAMIC VESSELS 377
Table 2. Summary data/or tests o f initial absorption ( meaning) and tests o f heating
effectiveness (mean time, ins, to reach 90 ° C) . Based on raw data in Table 1

Interior treatments

Initial
absorption Test I Test 2

Resin coated 181 174

Finger smooth 2·56 407 166
Polish 2·29 353 162
LFe slip and polish 1·59 358 151
LFe slip/polish/smudge 0·87 260 146
HFe slip/polish/smudge 0·94 262 141

Exterior treatments

Exterior
absorption Test I Test2 Test3

Textured 5·24 410 164 207*

Finger smooth 4·62 374 166 206t
Slip and polish 3·16 220 148 210i
HFe slip/polish/smudge 2·78 202 148 202§

*Excludes vessel 30.

tExcludes vessel 31 (extreme value in that test).
tExcludes vessels 36 and 52.
§Excludes vessel 33.

interior and exterior surfaces influence short-term heating effectiveness. The interior
results are especially intriguing, since the resin-coated vessels have the worst heating
effective1_1ess. This probably comes about as follows. During test 2, vessels with permeable
interiors gradually absorb water. Because water is a far better conductor of heat than the
air it displaces in the pores of the vessel wall, partially saturated walls heat their contents
more quickly than completely dry vessels. That is why vessels having some interior per-
meability perform better in this short-term test. However, within the set of vessels with
permeable interiors, the least permeable ones tend to perform the best. This apparent
contradiction comes about, I suggest, because in vessels with greater interior permeability,
water reaches the exterior surface sooner and evaporation-with its deleterious impact on
heating effectiveness-ensues. These complex-and potentially confusing-results
underscore the need for test l, which more realistically simulates the problems of long-
term cooking.
Another factor to consider when interpreting the results of test 2 is the effect of vessel
size. In permeable pots of greater size, which take much longer to heat their contents, the
vessel wall is apt to become saturated well before the water begins to boil. Thus, processes
that are only partly at work in test 2---evaporation from the exterior surface and conse-
quent loss of heating effectiveness-should become dominant in full-size vessels. Because
test 1 began with saturated vessels, its findings should be generally applicable to larger
vessels. (A subsidiary experiment, carried out with a large pot, has verified this sketch.)
The results oftest 1(heating with saturated pots) indicate that both interior and exterior
surface treatments profoundly influence heating effectiveness. The best performing pots
take about 3 min to raise the water temperature to 90 ° C, whereas the worst require more
378 M. B. SCHIFFER

Finger smooth •
C
0
"'E. Polishe

_2 2·0-
0

Slip ond polish (LFel e

:s

Slip and polish and smudge (HFe)

Slip and polish and smudge ( L F e ) I

Resin
I A I I I

0 100 200 300 400

Mean time to reoch 90 ° C ( s )
Figure I. The effects of interior surface treatment on heating effectiveness in test I.

than 8 min. The most extreme example is vessel 34, which has the highest overall per-
meability (finger-smooth interior, textured exterior); it never raised the water temperature
to 90 ° C, even after 12 min, and nearly all water was gone.
As expected, initial absorption is correlated with time needed to reach 90 ° . In so far as
interior treatments are concerned (Table 2, Figure I), resin coatings provide the best
heating effectiveness and finger-smooth the worst. Among the exterior treatments (Table
2, Figure 2), those with slip and polish, including smudging, perform quite well, whereas
finger-smooth and textured exteriors cause a great loss of heating effectiveness.
A closer look at these data discloses several additional patterns. First of all, not only are
resin-coated vessels as a group the best performers, but the intra-group variation is
relatively small, ranging from 172-191 s. Test 3 (all vessels resin coated) was performed
to examine this pattern with a larger sample size. Although test 3 was marred by some
problems (a missing vessel, increase in flame strength at the end), the overall results (Table
2) are clearcut and support those oftest l: exterior surface treatments have no appreciable
effect on heating effectiveness when interiors are impermeable. These findings suggest that
if cooking pots have impermeable interiors, exterior surfaces most likely were responding
to performance characteristics other than heating effectiveness. (Because textured
exteriors are common on cooking pots, especially in prehistoric North America, the
possibility arises that a resin coating, gunk, or smudging had been used to reduce interior
permeability when heating effectiveness was of concern.)
A second pattern in the result of test l is that exterior treatments that include slipping
and polishing also consistently endow vessels with good heating effectiveness. For
example, the slipped, polished, and smudged vessels needed a mean of 202 s to reach
90 ° C in comparison to 181 s for resin-coated vessels. Thus, an exterior surface of
relatively low permeability performs almost as well as an impermeable interior. However,
slipped and polished exteriors are almost never found on archaeological and ethnographic
cooking pots. The present experiments shed some light on why this might be so. During
heating in test l, 75% of the vessels with slipped and polished exteriors developed a patch
of small pits or spalls on the exterior base. The spalls tend to be 1-3 mm in diameter,
 HEATING EFFECTIVENESS ON CERAMIC VESSELS 379

Texturede
5•0f-

Finger smooth•

4·0-
-;;,
C
0

l5 Slip and polish (LFe�

1: 3·0-
0 eSlip and polish and smudge (HFe)
"
.§

..
·2
.2
2·0-
;
.,
C
.,
0

:;
1·0-

I I I I

0 100 200 300 400

Mean time to reach 9 0 ° C ( s)

Figure 2. The effects of exterior surface treatment on heating effectiveness in test I.

though a few were as great as 6 mm; some vessels have as many as 25 spalls. Obviously,
spalling would rapidly increase the permeability of these surfaces, negating the original
advantage of slipping and polishing. It is important to note that the two vessels with resin-
coated interiors (vessels 33 and 34) did not spall, demonstrating that this damage is caused
by diffusing moisture-perhaps as steam-and not simply heat. Moreover, test 3 did not
create more spalling. Apparently, the dramatic drop in permeability from the interior of
the wall to the exterior surface establishes the conditions needed for spalling.

Discussion and Conclusion

These experimental findings illustrate one major problem of cooking pot design, that of
reducing the flow of liquid through the vessel wall. Clearly, energy used to boil off
diffusing water is unavailable to heat the vessel contents, and so is wasted. This is readily
seen in Figure 3, which plots all 24 vessels from test 1 in relation to water loss and time to
reach 90 ° C. The greater the water loss, the longer it takes to heat the vessel contents (even
though there is less to heat). This striking relationship indicates why surface treatments
that affect permeability have such a large influence on heating effectiveness. (Moreover, to
offset water losses, the pot user periodically has to add water-presumably cooler than
that in the vesels, which would further reduce heating effectiveness.)
In view of these strong effects, it is expected that potters desiring to enhance the heating
effectiveness of cooking vessels would turn to specific surface treatments. The most effec-
tive way to eliminate water loss is to make the interior surface impermeable. Ethnographic
and ethnoarchaeological accounts indicate that potters apply a wide variety of resins and
other substances to cooking vessel interiors, often while the pot is still hot from firing (e.g.
Willett & Connah, 1969; Ellen & Glover, 1974; Longacre, 1981). In other accounts,
potters apply coatings to the exterior of hot pots (e.g. Foster, 1956). That such organic
 380 M. B. SCHIFFER

700>- •
600>-

-u.,
0
0 400f-
(])
500-
....
•
•
c
.

••
..,.. •
.E 3 0 0 -
E
200
--1
100-

I I I I

0 5 10 15 20 25
Water loss (ml)
Figure 3. The relationship between permeability and heating effectiveness (test I).

coatings on a vessel's exterior could survive repeated heatings over a fire seems very
unlikely, but this possibility should not be dismissed without adequate experimentation.
Another strategy is to treat a vessel's interior before its first use. For example, Messing
(1957: 134) describes the procedure used by the Amhara of Ethiopia for "waterproofing":

"The pot is reheated for half an hour on the usual hearth used for cooking ... It is then placed on
the ground and cold milk is quickly poured in and rapidly swished about until the pot is cold. The
milk is then thrown away. This is considered the best method by the craftswomen. Yeast may be
used in place of milk, but it is not considered as good."

Max & Tuckson (1982: 49) describe substances used in Melanesia for sealing cooking
pots. It should be noted that the contents of a cooking pot might also contribute to the
reduction of vessel permeability (e.g. Chapman, 1953: 14).
The present study suggests that where good heating effectiveness is important, trial-
and-error may lead potters to modify interior surfaces to reduce permeability.
Exterior surfaces, on the other hand, are probably responding to different performance
characteristics.
Eventually, as more experiments are carried out, we will be able to sift through hypo-
theses that purport to describe the effects of potters' technical choices on performance
characteristics, providing a sound basis for rejecting or accepting specific claims. It is
essential that such empirically based knowledge grow ifwe are to understand the myriad
designs of cooking pots whose remains comprise so much of the archaeological record.

Acknowledgements
I thank Setra Systems, Labline, Inc., and IBM for donations of equipment used in these
experiments. I am indebted to Kenneth Fordyce and James M. Skibo for supplying useful
references. Alan P. Sullivan III, David P. Braun, James M. Skibo, Lisa C. Young, William
 H E A T I N G EFFECTIVENESS O N C E R A M I C VESSELS 381

A. Longacre, and Gordon Bronitsky provided helpful comments on early drafts. The
figures were drawn by Barbara K. Montgomery. An earlier version of this paper was
presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology at
Phoenix, Arizona, 1988.

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