Pottery Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is pottery (2)
Formed clay objects made rigid by firing
Drives off moisture and sinters clay particles together
Earliest fired clay
“Venus” figurines from Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe
Earliest pottery (3)
Jiangxi Province in China
Cave site with Hunters and gatherers
Used for cooking
Styles of pottery (2+)
Malleability of clay = variety of forms
Changes in style = quick + useful in determining chronology
Distribution of styles means what
Tells us about shared practices, exchange, learning and communication
What is estimation
Relative chronology
Pottery: exchange + info transfer (3+)
Exchange + trade
Sharing of info
Shared techniques, technologies + designs
What is pottery made of (3)
Clay
Clay minerals weathered from stone + deposited water action
Contained metallic elements- iron + magnesium
What operational sequence (5+)
Breaks down craft production into steps:
Material used
Manufacturing tools used
Waste products
Choices being made
Archaeological implications - what we’ll find
What are accessories
Raw clay includes organic + inorganic inclusions
Pottery - hand techniques
Slab construction - pinching + stretching
Coiling
Paddle + anvil
Turning techniques (2)
Tournette
Fast wheel
Techniques for pottery (3)
Mould
Turning
Hand
Firing atmospheres - oxidising (2)
Surplus oxygen
Produces red, oranges, buff/white fabrics
Firing atmospheres - reduction (2)
Carbon monoxide
Black effects - deliberate for decoration
Sourcing clay (2++)
Diff parent stones + secondary inclusions = diff clay beds have diff compositions
Work backwards = Ceramic petrography
Ceramic petrography (2+++)
Thin section cut from pottery shred = mounted on glass slide
Polarising light shone through
Minerals etc identified by colour, luminosity + shape + clay source
Advantage + disadvantage of ceramic petrography (4+)
+ = informs on how clay body formed
+ = distinguishes “recipes” from sources
- = based on judgement analyses
- = time consuming
INAA stands for
Instrumental neutron activation analysis
What INAA (3+)
Bombards samples with radiation to create isotopes
Then measures decay paths of isotopes to identify what elements make-up the sample
Uses mass-spectrometry to measure elements
Advantages - INAA (3+)
Uses very small samples = destroys less of the artefact
Can be carried out rapidly for large numbers of samples
Results are quantified = direct comparison
Disadvantages - INAA (2+)
Heavily influenced by most common elements = not necessarily most important elements
Does not tell us about structure of ceramic body
Residue analysis - INAA (4+)
Materials = absorbed by porous surfaces = samples can be recovered and tested
DNA sequencing can be conducted on organic materials if sufficient DNA survives
Mass-spectrometry detects elements in residue - not as specific as DNA but evidence survives better
Lipids (fats), tartaric acid, starches and stable isotopes identified by the contents of pots
