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    Pottery 123

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    Solomonel

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Prsonce a —_ come widely wailable, the numberof potters making traditional cooking pos fn water ar is rapidly ducing, and with them is disappearing an inva able source of insight into prehistoric cultures and tei artifacts ‘A number of people helped me in preparing this book. Among them 1 would like to thnk Wendell Williams and Warten DeBcer, who rea various sections ofthe manuscript, and especially Alan Franklin, who bravely tackled chapters 12-14. Chuck Nelson helped with ble 7-1 and Brace Edwacds with Figure 7.9. Don Rice tok pictures, ewitched fle, and assisted with mates of design. Part of this manuscript were drafted while {held « Nationl Sei ‘ence Foundation Visiting Professorship for Women, and Tam gritel for that suppor. Introduction When you bold » pot in your hands, when you go over its walls with your Fingers, you Tel the hands ofthe pote, his fngermarks, hs touch, You may ‘ot know who be was of what he Tooked like, but, handling the pot, be st [hundreds or thousards of years old, you ein sil fel the imprint of is bands Iti his fact about a pot thar makes itso endearing, 0 very personal. Ti makes ‘he physical handag Fa pot chan important pert of = appreciation 25 portant as i visual impact, and a times even more 50 (©. Nataler, Ceramics Pottery and Its History Potery vs the fist synthetic materi! humans created —arifcial stone—and it combines the four basic elements identified bythe Greeks earth, wate, fe, an air. AS one of many materials within the large spre of technology ‘known as ceramics, potery has tanformed abroad range of human endea ‘of, from prehistoric cuisine tothe twentith-century aerospace inst [Besides peehisione vessels and fragments, common ceramics inlude tees cots, earthenwares, and stonewares sich a raft tems and fowerpots, and flso china and porclan tibleware. Less obviously, peshaps, ceramics alto ‘encompass Brick, roof and oor es, sewer pipe, glass, and vitreous plumb ing ixures, aswell as cements and plasters, abrasives, efactores, enameled meals, electrical insulation and condoction pars, space-shutle es, spark pgs, and dentures (ee Norton 1970, 408-75), and receaty ceramic master ls ave been invented that ean bot ving hums tissue, opening Up ne ‘medical application (Hench and Etheridge 1982, 126~48). The convection between ancient potery fragments, outer space, and modern medicine may seem temuous, butts present in the realm of cram 1.1 Pottery and Ceramics: Definitions and Products “The term “ceramic” drives from the Greek keramos, variously translated as “ured stuff” or “earthenware”: it describes a fred product rather than a lay raw material (Oldfather 1920, se also Washburn, Ries, and Day 1820), Altough in popular usage ceramics denotes materials made of clay, modern science applies the term far mere broaly to chemical compounds combining reali elements (hich give up electrons) with nonmetal elements (which luk or share electrons). Thus one deficition calls ceramics “the at and Se ‘ence of making and sing solid articles which have as thei essential compo ent, and are composed in large part of, inorganic nonmetallic materials” (Kingery. Bowen, and Uhlmann 1976, 3). Although some ceramics are com psitonally complex, they may also exist as simple oxides of aluminam (A1,0), magnesium (MgO), or barium (BaTiO) "The word ceramics has two Sets of overlapping meanings, one set comuon to materials sience and another employed in art and archaeology which com: plicates its precise definition and sage. In materials science ceramics te 4 broad generic term, refeving either t the entire range of compounds of smells and nonmetals er, sometimes slightly more restrictvely, to materials ‘manufactured from silicates (usually clays) and hardened by applying beat The term also encompasses the research and applied fields developed around these products, tht is, ceramic science, ceramic engineering, and ceramic industries. Potery is one of several specific industries within the overall ce ramic feld (able 1-1) and inclodes low and high-fired tbleware, tenis, tnd tes; the exer ceramic industries manufacture structural, electrical, re factory or glass prodts (Grimshaw 1971, 38), Tn art and archacology the term ceramics ually excludes consrvtion or industrial procts (cements, bricks, abrasives, ef.) and conforms more closely to dictionary definitions, which emphasize the plastic ats and clay ‘working, Within these Held, ceramis refers to cooking and serving wnsls nd objets dare manufactured of clay. Even here the term is sometimes em ployed more specifically to distinguish ceramics —hih-fed, usually glazed, nd vtniied—fom pottery, which consists of low-fred, amvitnfied objets andor cooking and stocage vessels Ip Oriental studies an even finer distinc tion may be maul, whereby ceramics denotes glazed and vtifed material ‘acermediatetechncogicallyDetwoon low-fred postery and high-fred anh cent porcelain. Tn terms ofthese several citesia of function, firing, and composition, pe historic archuologists and anthvopologsts iavestvating traditional crafts commonly teat only subset of the diverse fel of ceramics, tat is, low fired, ungazed, relatively coarse potery vessels or at objets. (Its ela, however, that in he historical period as well asin mach of Asia, high-fred slared and vitrod ceramics rovide a major cormponent ofthe data bas.) The fine distinction between ceramics and pottery is ficult to uphold in ‘many stations, for example, n ime periods o regions where domestic es sels were of vittified ela. Nevertheless given bon the extremely brotd tech: ‘Sisal ceramics ‘Bricks, fe, drainipes, covert, Bowers Porreny ano is Hisoay nical meaning andthe narrow ar-historical meaning ofthe term ceramics, the bulk of low-fred, unvitied material treated by anropologists end pe historic archaeologists is more propery refered 10 a poten. Prehistoric, historical, and modern potery and ceramics are grouped nto 8 numberof categories called wares or Bodies (table 1.2) on the bass of thie composition, ring, and surface treatment (see Norton 1970, 1-7). The broadest division is into united versus weed wares, a distinction based fn wheter the composition and fring ae such that the clay melt and fuses imo a glasy (he., vitreous or vitrified) substance, Low-fred, porous, un itt porery includes tera-cotas and earthenware, while high-Ared, Vitifed ceramics include stonewares and pocelins. Teeracotas ae relatively course, porous wares fired at low temperatures, usually 900°C or less. Te earliest red powory in ll aeas ofthe word falls into this eategory. Tera-ota vesels, sculptures, and tes are generally not ‘covered with a glaze, but they may exhibit several surface teatments that en hance ther Fonction. Roughenig SuTaces hy beating with carved a ond ‘or fbri-wrapped paddle can increase te abuity of vessels to absorb heat and prevent them from slipping ou ofthe hands when wet, Alternatively, surfaces ‘nay be covered with sip or engobe, a liguid soluton of ie clays and water that ination ro cosmetic eees of coloring and smoothing, lowers the ves sels porosity ad retards sage of liquid contents. Terr-cotas ae often subsumed within the broader category of eathenaes Earthenwares slo include porow,umvitrifid clay bodies, but they are ed ¢4 wide range of temperatures from 800°900°C cx so up t0 1100/1200" Tn the lower part of the range they are roughly equivalent to tera-otas, athenwaies muy be glased or unglsce akough the body itself ts not virile, the ing temperature may be high enough fallow a glae wo form propels. "These wares are made fro “earthenware elas,” usally relatively coarse, plastic red: firing primary clays. Tie category of ceramic miter in cludes a wide range of producis, ranging from coarse earthenware (sme times called "heavy clay products”) such as bricks and isto fine earthen wares such as tin-enameled majlias, nade with more refined white-burning iy hp Rey Tims hinge Tyna Apa Comme Teno Hk STE We ew BFE wf. Ua ce Sonne 058-208 G EIDAISGC Ch dries, Prrwdnin —Learhan SOKO ne lena: Ha ye, we ‘Somat cqament en ped Iereonvcrio Porreny ava fs Histon clay bodies. Eartheawares have served an enormous variety of howsebold and ‘onstruction purposes throughout the word for maay millenia, Stonewaes are fred at temperatures of eoughly 1200 to 135°C, high ‘enough to achieve a least partial fusion or wirification of the clay boxy, d= Pending on is composition. The body Is medium coarse and opaque rather than tanslucent and often is gray or ight brown, Ics wally composed of "stoneware cays," which ae iypically sedimentary deposits such as all lays (oe Rhodes 1973, 22), highly plsic and low in iron, Stonewares may be Lnglazed or may have 3 lead glaze or, more Frequently in mode tines, salt laze. A distinctive fie, hat, poreclinike Baropean stoneware i= We ‘wood jasper ware, containing high quanti of barium sulfate, which began ‘o be mace in England inthe mideighteenth centr) ‘The pinnacle ofthe pote’ rt, at leas in tems of technical accomplish into something har and durable. A relatively recent achievement bythe ya stick of prehistory itis this transformation tat allowed broken bits of ptery to survive millenia and come int archaeologists” hands for stud. Any discussion of the history of pottery and ceramics must begin with the ‘eogition of lay itself as useful raw material (Se table 1.3). Clay is cer ‘aly one ofthe most abundant, cheap, and adaptable resources svaable for human exploitation. Earliest arcaeological evidence for its use tes itt the dlivere artistic expressions of the Upper Palelithic peri of central and western Europe. Many Paleolithic caves have designs trace into wet clay on ‘walls and Hoors, i alton to the move Fala anal paotings, At the Toc Wess He nents, was eached with he Chinese prodction of porcelain, a thin, white. ieidy oe ae tranicent vitiied ceumic th ts cintomarly fre at temperaes of 1 eae Catan 128) dD0°C oe higher. Portas remade of «white Sring, highly telae- i owes tory kala clay sometimes called "china cla"), relatively fe of imparts, j pec ama, 300-—dgen ooto ne. Yan, 300 tino with quart and with ground, partly decomposed feldspathic rock | = odenswers eens, Toros that act as ox, Whoa fred to igh temperate the feldspar meh, ivng ‘ a ie sm rmilion Chin ho Me 4. the products characteris ramlucency, hares, nd modus ig wen | We soee ina inset Ko tepped. Hie (but sonuansicen) porcelains io China ae wel krownh 1 a from te Tang dynasty inthe ninth an tenth cemiisa. Hobson 1976, | eae apes 0 oa ay, 148), altough “protpeceine” or "porceianegs”stnewates ae some fm ne Tyoone mes claimed to have been manufactured a milleniin ear inthe Han dy | Ho tasty (Laufer 191; Li act 1985, 159), i ete sm 199016 waren So ‘When Chinese prclans ofthe Song, Ming, and ar dymaicn acd ‘toe Baurope, pote thee red a varity of experiments o achive te sre an i Sencnue Gamay Chien, 10 nest and transicency including adding ound gas to he clay, ut they met ag cate! ane ‘ith ite sices. he anslocney of poclan could be achive ta nt a ‘Wiig, tata ee the hardness, and the European product up through the eighteenth century was ml eta 2 "sof poesia” or pte enre Kingery and Smith 1985), Poxelistoday tee te on mec fre composed of 40510 50S Kalin fometines with he addon of «one i or Past bal ey), 29% 40 308 feldspar and 208 to 25% quarto in (Nor | Sete co, 2 emey ton 1970, 336; Rhodes 1973, 53-54). "Hone china” isa late cightent Tt Souter In. 108 —Anyia,goac Ne em eotry English imovation in which ened ox bones provide the desied aslcency Boos china,consinting of 405 0 50% bone ash, tay is made sliost exclusively in England (Norton 1970, 346-60), eet Iisimposible to rae precisely he begonngs of barn explain ofthe haces . agers ‘orks resources of earthy and cay eustances.Alltongh ay sone tos oe stion yn neo from Aftca ae more han milion years the oldest objects of ly that opm pie tbe anchacolois have found ne ony ithe ten of hoeands of yur. Hatant "aml may have experimented wth sl, patic ety materials coniersbly before ; agene 0 ‘this, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years ago, in uses as ephemeral as bach a painting their bodies with olor clays. Buc the essen Features in the is {ory of use ofthis resource isthe application of heat to transform the soft clay gL lsrrooterion «4 Audoabert cave in France two modeled bison were found, formed of unfied ‘lay. Among the Famous “Venuses"—female figurines with exaggerated sex- val characerstics—are specimens formed of fired and unfired clay from Dolaf Vestonice in Czechoslovakia; dating to about 30,000 .c. (Zimmerman snd Huxuable 1971), some ofthe Bgurines were made of clay mixed with ‘rushed mammoth bone. "These examples sugges that by the late Paleolithic pti thee significant principles of clay use were already Known. One is that moist clay is plastic: t ‘an be shaped and formed and wil retain tha form wen died. Another pri ‘leis that fire hardens clay. A hid is that adding various substances to clay an improve its properties and usefulness. “The use of clay to make posery contincrs does nt seem to have originated in any single time and place in human history; rather, the idea seems to have boen independently invemed in an unknowa number of centers. Several sce- rnaros have been proposed to explain the origins of potery all are inutvely appealing and msy have some bess in fact. Unfortunately, though, simple an- sers to “Why?” questions in archaeology are not easy to come by, and the ‘whys and hows of pottery origins are no exception. Maltiple causes are more probable explanations for almost all prehistoric cultural developments; thus the bepinings of potery may be a consequence of numerous line of experi- ‘mentation and accumulation of practical experience. ‘One unusual suggestion is that pottery vessels may have developed out of “sol ers,” the surfaces of ie clay deposit tat, daring sun drying, shrank and warped into shallow bowilike forms (Golfer 1980, 108, "A more typical reconstruction of pottery origins calls attention to the fact that in many parte of the world the earliest pottery know archaclogially ‘oveurs in forms or with decorations that resemble earlier containers made of other materials. These pottery skeuomoephs often mimic containers of birchbark (Speck 1931), metal (Trachler 1965), gourds loesink- Mandeville 1973), wood (Mellaart 1965, 220), or soapstone (Grin 1968, 105-6), or leather bags or baskets. The similarities have led eo suggestions that potery Uutnsis may have developed out ofthe use of clay tolne, mend, or reinforce containers such as baskets (Se, e.g, Wormington and Neal 1951, 9). This ‘was once «popular explanation forth origins of Southwestern United States pater, but the theory was based on the basketice “corrugated ceramic ‘wares from this area, which actually occur eatively late inthe technological sequence rather than early (Morris 1917; Gifford and Smith 1978). ‘Alternatively, clay could have been used alone, perhaps to fem containers ‘tha wore oly dried and hardened inthe sun; these would have served well for ‘holding dry goods such as grains, sods, nuts, or hers, In prepottery Neo- Tithe setements at both Jarmo and Jericho inthe Near East, cly-lined stor- age pits, “baked in place” basins set into house oor, fr pts, and ovens ‘ave boon found (so Amin 1965, 242). It snot dificult to imagine thet ‘once people recognized the durability and impermeablity of the hardened clay that line these pits they would have experimented with Fring clay to create portable containers. For atchaeologists, te problem in all these reconstructions is that unfired clay objects are ephemeral and leave only rate traces in the archaeological Porreny ano rs Histon record. They are easily broken, crushed, or dissolved by liquid and quickly return to thei original stat, Thus the early use of clay for making or modify. ing containers is stil poorly documented “The se of unied clay for artistic or uilitarian objects is not restricted to the eaiest stages of cultural development, however. Uafired clay vessels were found in tombs in Nubia from a.0. 300-550 (Wiliams, Williams, nd Me- Milan 1985, 46); inthe Near East unfied clay objects come from excava tions nt structures dating tothe early Sumerian civilization, and a variety of Unfred “mud” dishes and other ulensis are made by Bedouins inthe same sea today (Ochsenschlager 1974), and some Eskimo postery from a.0. 1000 to 1600 was unfied(Stimmelland Stromberg 1986, 247). Unted, sun-dried ‘lay object are made and ured today in Papua New Gunes (May and Tuckson 1982, 7), Nonetheless, in most cases itis nly when cla items were subjected to fire—intenonally or ecidenaly, through burning of dried clay parching fray or sting a clay ined basket too close (othe fse—that they survived and allow us to pice Iagether a technological history of pottery. “The appearance ofpotery vessels in the archaeological record was atone time inespeted within evolutionary theories as marking te development of Tauman societies out of "Upper Savagery” into “Lower Barbarism” (Morgan 1877), but in more recent thinking potery i sea as pat of he so-called Neo lithic technocomple. Thi tan assemblage of tools and containers fr food Drepartion and storage, together withthe associated technology of thei ‘manufacture and use, tht correlates in avery general way with worldwide changes in human lifeways a the end of the Paleolithic period or soon there alter. These changes ate dramatic, involving the adoption of foed production father than collecting, and sctemcnt in ilags ether than temporary en ‘campments. Although there i no necessary causal relationship between agri coltral ie and potery making, i i tre that even today potey is primarily ‘made in sedentary as opposed to nomadic societies (table 1.4). When seru- ‘nized on a smaller eae, however, the Neolithic changes appear asthe culm ration of slong Series of connected adjustments and alterations in social and ‘ecological relationships. The changes took place over several millennia and tery, rater than being a spectacular new achievement st this ime, i beter considered as a transformed exploitation of an already familiar raw ma- ‘eral. The appearance and widespread adoption of fired potery reflects both ‘continuing and new needs for tools and resources—principally storing and “Die L4 elon ten Por Ming on Seon ance iy sie os Salen De Pasay Fly Nemedeary Seboey Sentry Tal ecrrnaing woes 2 @ 7” « New yore saa « 4 3 B ‘Zarce Arld 9R, he 53. From Hom Rls a Fs ri Songs Fk Iereanvcrion preparing newly important foods such as domesticated pains —and new ways lof meeting these neds. Infact one theory ofthe origins of potery relates ito the need to detorify plant foods by heating (Arnold 1983, 129-35) All of| this i not minimize its signifience from the viewpoint of the history of technology, however, The technological schievements that underlie pstery ‘making established the foundations for many other ancient and modern tec nologies such as metallurgy, brick architecue, and engineering, 1.2.1 Pontery and Ceramics inthe O16 World 12.1 Tap Neax East In the Near East, although Paleolithic se of clay hat nt been documented archacologically, after about 10,000 mc. clays were used fora variety of pur- poses incling architecture, potery, and small modeled clay objects. The ‘onder of appearance varies fom region fo region within the area Architectural se of cay is widespread ery early (by 7500 a.) inal areas ofthe Near East and cals anton tothe integration of clay exploitation with sedentary agricultural setements, Cla was used by vet or mized with chat for siraw fom the fields as poured or “puddle” adobe for constructing walls of permanent hovses, as plaster or mortar over rock or ple walls, and for floors and rofs. Indeed, wheat ad barley Kernels are often found embedded the clay of those buildings (Amiran 1965, fg 1). Adobe bricks began tobe used as carly a5 75006300 B.C. in the Zagros area (Schmandt-Bessrat 1974) Planoconvex bricks, formed ina mold and dried inthe sun, continued to serve in the construction of residences, temples, end burial chambers for millennia; fied bricks were probably epulry in we by 150 ac. Pottery containers appear pechops as early as 8500-8000 pc. at Beldibi (Bostanci 1959, 146-47, cited in SehmandtBesserat 1977s, 133) and Catal Hayle (Mellasrt 1964, 1965) in southern Turkey, whereas in Syria potery id not occur uni bout 6000-5500 a,c. (Schmandl-Besserat 1977, 40). ln the Zagros area, figurines and geometric cones, spheres, and disk were made of clay as erly as 8500~7500 pc. and inthe suoceeding millennium pot- tery conainers—which may or may not hve been fred—Began to be made (Schmand-Besserat 1974). The earliest vessels inthe Near East were hand built by coiled or segmental building (Mellaart 1965, 220) and then seraped, paddled, or rubbed to produce an even fnsh; they were fied withou kins in ‘open bonfires, using svood or dung cakes for fuel. These and later vessels come in a range of shapes, inluding bows, cups, and trays, and ler are decorated with paint and incised lines, Ther decoration depicts variety of, plant and animal forms (fg. 1-1), human activities, and costuming; and the context of recavery-—burial, household activity areas, refuse deposits—pro vides many clues to ther diverse functions. Despite the common use of fred cy, objects formed of unfred clay con- tinued to be important. At Cayénd, in Anatoli, in the period about 6500 19 6000 w.c., before the manufacture and use of red pottery, various unfied lay objects have been found, including models of houses, «bowl formed by lining a basket with clay, animal and human figurines, and acly-ined bin (Redman 1978, 160), Porveny aND Ins MstoxY aco, sri mage ng Ar eames 1975.69. {AC 2 numberof sites in the Near East, united or low-fred clay tokens, in- seribed with various notations, may constiute early records of economic transactions tht canbe linked ote later development of writing (Schmandt- Besserat 1978; ef. Lieberman 1980). The variety of sizes and shapes of the ‘objets (cones, disks, et.) may comespond to kinds and quantities of goods ‘These shapes ae echoed in the earliest examples of writing, which appear in cuneiform on clay tables by te late fourth millennium. When fred, as at Ea (Tell Mardi), whether intentionally or aeidenaly, these clay tables {ormed a permanent “library” of knowledge and activities ofthe time (Mat thie 1977), ‘Female figurines, “mother goddesses," were widely produced in ary agri-

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