Understanding Pottery Function

Understanding Pottery Function PDF

Author: James M. Skibo

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-08-15

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1461441994

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The 1992 publication of Pottery Function brought together the ethnographic study of the Kalinga and developed a method and theory for how pottery was actually used. Since then, there have been considerable advances in understanding how pottery was actually used, particularly in the area of residue analysis, abrasion, and sooting/carbonization. At the 20th anniversary of the book, it is time to assess what has been done and learned. One of the concerns of those working in pottery analysis is that they are unsure how to “do” use-alteration analysis on their collection. Another common concern is understanding intended pottery function—the connections between technical choices and function. This book is designed to answer these questions using case studies from the author and his colleagues for applying use-alteration analysis to infer actual pottery function. The focus of Understanding Pottery Function is on how practicing archaeologists can infer function from their ceramic collection.

Pottery Function

Pottery Function PDF

Author: James M. Skibo

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1992-09-30

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9780306441592

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There are many ways to study pots or the sherds of pots. In this book James Skibo has focused on the surface wear and tear found on the resin-coated, low-fired cooking pots of the Kalinga people in north western Luzon. This detailed analysis is part of a much larger evalua tion of Kalinga pottery production and use by the staff members and students at the University of Arizona that has been underway since 1972. Here he has analyzed the variants among the possible residual clues on pots that have endured the stresses of having been used for cooking meat and vegetables or rice; standing on supports in the hearth fire; wall scrapings while distributing the food; being transported to the water source for thorough washing and scrubbing; followed by storage until needed again-a repetitive pattern of use. This well-controlled study made use of new pots provided for cooking purposes to one Kalinga household, as well as those pots carefully observed in other households-- 189 pots in all. Such an ethnoarchaeological approach is not unlike follOwing the course of the firing of a kiln-load of pots in other cultures, and then purchasing the entire product of this firing for analysis. Other important aspects of this Kalinga study are the chemical analysis of extracts from the ware to deduce the nature of the food cooked in them, and the experimental study of soot deposited on cooking vessels when they are in use.

Pottery Function

Pottery Function PDF

Author: James M. Skibo

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1489911790

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There are many ways to study pots or the sherds of pots. In this book James Skibo has focused on the surface wear and tear found on the resin-coated, low-fired cooking pots of the Kalinga people in north western Luzon. This detailed analysis is part of a much larger evalua tion of Kalinga pottery production and use by the staff members and students at the University of Arizona that has been underway since 1972. Here he has analyzed the variants among the possible residual clues on pots that have endured the stresses of having been used for cooking meat and vegetables or rice; standing on supports in the hearth fire; wall scrapings while distributing the food; being transported to the water source for thorough washing and scrubbing; followed by storage until needed again-a repetitive pattern of use. This well-controlled study made use of new pots provided for cooking purposes to one Kalinga household, as well as those pots carefully observed in other households-- 189 pots in all. Such an ethnoarchaeological approach is not unlike follOwing the course of the firing of a kiln-load of pots in other cultures, and then purchasing the entire product of this firing for analysis. Other important aspects of this Kalinga study are the chemical analysis of extracts from the ware to deduce the nature of the food cooked in them, and the experimental study of soot deposited on cooking vessels when they are in use.

Early Pottery

Early Pottery PDF

Author: Rebecca Saunders

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2004-12-26

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0817351272

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A synthesis of research on earthenware technologies of the Late Archaic Period in the southeastern U.S. Information on social groups and boundaries, and on interaction between groups, burgeons when pottery appears on the social landscape of the Southeast in the Late Archaic period (ca. 5000-3000 years ago). This volume provides a broad, comparative review of current data from "first potteries" of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains and in the lower Mississippi River Valley, and it presents research that expands our understanding of how pottery functioned in its earliest manifestations in this region. Included are discussions of Orange pottery in peninsular Florida, Stallings pottery in Georgia, Elliot's Point fiber-tempered pottery in the Florida panhandle, and the various pottery types found in excavations over the years at the Poverty Point site in northeastern Louisiana. The data and discussions demonstrate that there was much more interaction, and at an earlier date, than is often credited to Late Archaic societies. Indeed, extensive trade in pottery throughout the region occurs as early as 1500 B.C. These and other findings make this book indispensable to those involved in research into the origin and development of pottery in general and its unique history in the Southeast in particular.

Tracing Pottery-Making Recipes in the Prehistoric Balkans 6th–4th Millennia BC

Tracing Pottery-Making Recipes in the Prehistoric Balkans 6th–4th Millennia BC PDF

Author: Silvia Amicone

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2019-07-31

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1789692091

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Balkan ceramic studies is an emerging field within archaeology. This book brings together diverse studies by leading researchers and upcoming scholars, capturing the variety of current archaeological, ethnographic, experimental and scientific studies on Balkan ceramic production, distribution and use.

Pottery Analysis, Second Edition

Pottery Analysis, Second Edition PDF

Author: Prudence M. Rice

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-07-09

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0226923223

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Just as a single pot starts with a lump of clay, the study of a piece’s history must start with an understanding of its raw materials. This principle is the foundation of Pottery Analysis, the acclaimed sourcebook that has become the indispensable guide for archaeologists and anthropologists worldwide. By grounding current research in the larger history of pottery and drawing together diverse approaches to the study of pottery, it offers a rich, comprehensive view of ceramic inquiry. This new edition fully incorporates more than two decades of growth and diversification in the fields of archaeological and ethnographic study of pottery. It begins with a summary of the origins and history of pottery in different parts of the world, then examines the raw materials of pottery and their physical and chemical properties. It addresses ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological perspectives on pottery production; reviews the methods of studying pottery’s physical, mechanical, thermal, mineralogical, and chemical properties; and discusses how proper analysis of artifacts can reveal insights into their culture of origin. Intended for use in the classroom, the lab, and out in the field, this essential text offers an unparalleled basis for pottery research.

Use-Wear and Residue Analysis in Archaeology

Use-Wear and Residue Analysis in Archaeology PDF

Author: João Manuel Marreiros

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-06

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 3319082574

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This book is designed to act as a readily accessible guide to different methods and techniques of use-wear and residue analysis and therefore includes a wide range of different and complementary essential topics: experimental tests, observation and record methods and techniques and the interpretation of a diversity of tool types and worked raw materials. The onset of use-wear studies was marked by the development of theory, method and techniques in order to infer prehistoric tools functionality and, therefore, understand human technological, social and cultural behavior. The last decade of functional studies, use-wear and residue analysis have been aimed at the observation, recording and interpretation of different activities and worked materials found on archaeological tools made on different types of organic and non-organic materials. This international group of contributions will be fundamental for all researchers and students of the discipline.

Ceramics in Circumpolar Prehistory

Ceramics in Circumpolar Prehistory PDF

Author: Peter Jordan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-07

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1108577504

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Throughout prehistory the Circumpolar World was inhabited by hunter-gatherers. Pottery-making would have been extremely difficult in these cold, northern environments, and the craft should never have been able to disperse into this region. However, archaeologists are now aware that pottery traditions were adopted widely across the Northern World and went on to play a key role in subsistence and social life. This book sheds light on the human motivations that lay behind the adoption of pottery, the challenges that had to be overcome in order to produce it, and the solutions that emerged. Including essays by an international team of scholars, the volume offers a compelling portrait of the role that pottery cooking technologies played in northern lifeways, both in the prehistoric past and in more recent ethnographic times.

Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture

Ceramics, Cuisine and Culture PDF

Author: Michela Spataro

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2015-10-31

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1782979484

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The 23 papers presented here are the product of the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and approaches to the study of kitchen pottery between archaeologists, material scientists, historians and ethnoarchaeologists. They aim to set a vital but long-neglected category of evidence in its wider social, political and economic contexts. Structured around main themes concerning technical aspects of pottery production; cooking as socioeconomic practice; and changing tastes, culinary identities and cross-cultural encounters, a range of social economic and technological models are discussed on the basis of insights gained from the study of kitchen pottery production, use and evolution. Much discussion and work in the last decade has focussed on technical and social aspects of coarse ware and in particular kitchen ware. The chapters in this volume contribute to this debate, moving kitchen pottery beyond the Binfordian ‘technomic’ category and embracing a wider view, linking processualism, ceramic-ecology, behavioral schools, and ethnoarchaeology to research on historical developments and cultural transformations covering a broad geographical area of the Mediterranean region and spanning a long chronological sequence.