Pottery Description

Terminology

The term ‘pottery’ usually refers to earthenware, a type of ceramic ware that is not fired at extremely high temperatures. ‘Ceramic analysis’ is a term with very wide applicability, inasmuch as most aspects of analysis are transferable between earthenware and higher-fired ceramic wares like stoneware or porcelain.

Although any object fashioned from fired clay might be analyzed as pottery, here we will discuss only vessels (containers). A specialized vocabulary has evolved in this subfield of archaeology, due to the necessity of specifically referencing various parts and features of ceramic vessels. Figure 1 Shows the labeling of a few basic vessel parts. Descriptions of ceramic vessels include traits relating to manufacture, morphology (shape), surface finish, and decoration. Such traits again comprise a specialized vocabulary, which must have clear meanings within any given study, either from widely accepted usage or from specific definitions provided in the study.

Orifice/mouth

Upper wall Corner point/keel/ shoulder angle Lower wall

Illustration and Extrapolation

Illustration of pottery vessels and sherds can capture and convey more information than words or data tables. The most informative studies, therefore, are well illustrated. Photography is advantageous in many situations, especially when color and surface textures are important. Photographs of sherds, however, do not often do justice to the information about form that the human brain can grasp from even a relatively small sherd. Schematic drawings of various kinds are extremely useful for presentation of information.

Figure 2 Shows three levels of information presented for a single sherd from a vessel rim. The first (a) provides surface detail of the sherd but little information about the vessel form from which it came. The second (b) is an example of the rim profile that can be drawn if the vessel has a level rim, providing information about contour and thickness. This is done by holding the sherd so that its entire rim edge is level, in a single plane, and transferring the profile to paper by tracing and measuring. The third example (c) conveys more information at a glance. The source vessel for the sherd has been extrapolated, based on the combination of rim profile and mouth diameter. A circular vessel’s mouth diameter is determined by matching the arc of the sherd’s rim to circular template drawings of known diameter. Noncircular vessels create much difficulty for extrapolation, which is possible only if the sherd section is relatively large and there are whole similar vessels available in comparative collections.