Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics

245 Pages·1991·23.76 MB·English

by  Carla M. Sinopoli (auth.)

Approaches to
Archaeological
Ceramies
Approaches to
Archaeological
Ceramies
Carla M. Sinopoli
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-ln-Publlcatlon Data
Sinopoli. Carla M.
Approaches to archaeological ceramics I Carla M. Sinopol I.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographleal references and Index.
1. Pottery. 2. Archaeo logy--Methodo logy. 1. Title.
CC79.5.P6S56 1991
930. 1 . 028--dc20 91-17024
CIP
ISBN 978-0-306-43575-1 ISBN 978-1-4757-9274-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-9274-4
©1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press. New York in 1991.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover I st edition 1991
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Foreword
More than any other category of evidence, ceramics ofters archaeologists
their most abundant and potentially enlightening source of information on
the past. Being made primarily of day, a relatively inexpensive material that
is available in every region, ceramics became essential in virtually every
society in the world during the past ten thousand years. The straightfor
ward technology of preparing, forming, and firing day into hard, durable
shapes has meant that societies at various levels of complexity have come to
rely on it for a wide variety of tasks. Ceramic vessels quickly became
essential for many household and productive tasks. Food preparation,
cooking, and storage-the very basis of settled village life-could not exist
as we know them without the use of ceramic vessels. Often these vessels
broke into pieces, but the virtually indestructible quality of the ceramic
material itself meant that these pieces would be preserved for centuries,
waiting to be recovered by modem archaeologists.
The ability to create ceramic material with diverse physical properties,
to form vessels into so many different shapes, and to decorate them in
limitless manners, led to their use in far more than utilitarian contexts.
Some vessels were especially made to be used in trade, manufacturing
activities, or rituals, while ceramic material was also used to make other
items such as figurines, models, and architectural ornaments. The amaz
ing qualities of ceramic materials are still being discovered today as demon
strated by their continued use in virtually every household in the world as
weil as their innovative uses in computers and rocketships.
Their importance to archaeologists does not rest solely in the fact that
ceramics were abundant, but that they were used in many behavioral
contexts while the nature of their fabrication facilitated a great diversity in
details of shape, texture, appearance, and possible decorations that al-
v
vi FOREWORD
lowed an almost endless variety of human expression. The diversity of
well-preserved material remains and the contexts in which they are found
constitute the primary raw material of archaeological interpretations of the
past. As potentially exciting as this information is, it requires the most
diligent and innovative approaches to its study to unlock its secrets. The
classification, analysis, and interpretation of ancient ceramies has been at
the heart of the archaeological enterprise since its inception.
Commensurate with its importance to archaeologists have been ef
forts to refine existing approaches to the study of ceramies and to develop
new methodologies for answering basic questions about the past as well as
new interpretive questions posed by recent theoreticians. Decorative
styles, utilitarian implications of form, traces of use wear, chemical compo
sition, physical properties, and even studies of the motor habits of the
makers are an part of the arsenal of tools the ceramicists apply in their
investigations. Whereas in the past practical training in ceramic studies for
students might have occurred in an offhand manner as part of an ongoing
laboratory project, it is now imperative that students receive a broader and
systematic exposure to the potential methods of ceramic analysis.
Approaches to Archaeological Ceramies by Carla Sinopoli is an excellent
response to that need. This well-written and neatly organized text provides
the student and professional alike with a complete overview of ceramies.
The reader is given a useful treatment of the key steps in the manufacture of
ceramics, providing insights essential for understanding analytica1 methods.
From there the basic methods for analyzing ceramies are presented. The
core of the volume, and its unique strength, is that Chapters 4-7 present
approaches to answering various interpretive questions and examples of
how they have been utilized by archaeologists. These examples make dear
the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, giving the reader
both the scope of available methods and a means for evaluating their
relevance in each situation. A further aid to the student and professional is
the Appendix, which outlines often-used statistics as they have been
applied to ceramic studies.
Sinopoli condudes her volume with a discussion of new and potential
approaches that will come to characterize ceramic studies in the future.
These are useful directions to ponder as our discipline makes great pr0-
gress with reaching the interpretive potential of our most common artifact:
archaeological ceramies. This book definitely makes its own contribution
to that progress by providing both a sourcebook on what has a1ready been
accomplished and a guidebook on where we might usefully proceed.
Charles L. Redman
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
Preface
The past deeade has seen a tremendous proliferation of literature about
arehaeologieal pottery. Reeent works on eeramics include a eomprehensive
soureebook on eeramie materials and analyses (Riee 1987); a view of ee
ramie produetion in ethnographie eontexts from a eultural-eeologieal and
systemic perspeetive (Arnold 1985); a guide to eeramic teehnology (Rye
1981); numerous edited volumes eontaining specifie ease studies and exam
pIes of approaehes to arehaeologieal and ethnographie pottery (Howard
and Morris 1981; Olin and Franklin 1982; Riee, ed. 1984; van der Leeuw and
Pritehard 1984; Nelson 1985; Kolb 1988; Kolb and Laekey 1988); and eount
less other monographs and articles.
This growth of literature attests to the vitality and potential of eeramic
studies for arehaeologieal analysis and to our increasing ability to use
eeramics to ask and answer questions about the past. The abundanee of
literature on pottery, though, may prove daunting to the student seeking a
general introduetion to the topic. This work attempts to address this need
and is intended to serve as an introductory guide and overview to the seope
and potential of eeramie analysis in arehaeology. I hope that it will provide
a general guide to the literature of eeramie analysis, to the kinds of goals
that have been and ean be aeeomplished through eeramic analysis, and to
the tremendous potential of eeramic analysis for asking and answering
anthropologieal questions about the past.
Chapter 1 introduees some of the main eoneerns of the book and
presents a broad overview of its organization. In Chapter 2, I eonsider the
nature of eeramies and provide the basic voeabulary of eeramic analysis.
The raw materials of eeramie manufacture and the range of teehniques
used in forming, firing, and decorating vessels are eonsidered. I then
present a detailed deseription of eeramie produetion in a eontemporary
vü
vili PREFACE
village in India to provide a more concrete illustration of the general
processes of ceramic production.
In Chapter 3, I consider the crudal first step in the study of archae
ological ceramics: ceramic c1assification. Artifact c1assification, or the as
signment of archaeological materials into discrete or coherent groups or
c1asses, is an essential part of any archaeological study. The assumptions
and procedures we use in ceramic c1assification greatly influence alliater
analyses and must be carefully considered. In Chapter 3, I discuss three
common approaches to ceramic c1assification and provide examples of their
use in archaeological contexts.
In Chapters 4-7, I shift attention from general approaches to docu
menting archaeological ceramics to the more important concems of how
archaeologists can and have used ceramics to ask questions about the past.
A range of topics are discussed: ceramic ethnography and chronology
(Chapter 4); ceramic use, production, and distribution (Chapter 5); ce
ramics and sodal organization (Chapter 6); and ceramics and political
organization (Chapter 7). I first present a general discussion of each of
these issues and then present one or more case studies, drawn from all over
the world, which illustrate successful approaches to these questions using
ceramic data. In Chapter 8, I consider how new techniques and new
questions about the past will shape the future of ceramic research.
In preparing this manuscript, I have accumulated many debts to
many individuals. Most important, I would like to acknowledge all of
those researchers whose work I eite. I have leamed much from them and
hope that I successfully communicate a portion of what they have taught
me. My research on ceramics in southem India, discussed in several
sections of this work, would not have been possible without the permission
and support of the Govemment of India, the Archaeological Survey of
India, the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums of the Govemment of
Kamataka, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and John M. Fritz and
George A. MicheIl. I thank them all for their help in support of this work.
Funds for this research were provided by the Asian Cultural Couneil, the
National Seience Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Univer
sity of Michigan. I also thank the potters of Kamalapuram for teaching us
of their craft, and Laura Junker and Richard Blurton for leaming of it
with me.
I began writing this work while a Weatherhead Scholar at the School
of American Research in Santa Fe in 1986-1987. I cannot overstate my
gratitude to the School of American Research and to Richard Weatherhead
for their support and for the opportunity to spend a year in a wonderful
place with wonderful colleagues. Following Santa Fe, this manuscript (or
derivations thereof) has traveled with me to the University of Michigan in
PREFACE ix
Ann Arbo~ before proceeding on to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Thanks to my friends and colleagues in both of these places for their help
with the preparation and completion of this work.
A number of individuals have provided me with unpublished manu
scripts and photographs. I would like to thank Cathy Costin, Barbara
Mills, William J. Parry, Alison E. Rautman, and Kim Smiley for their help.
My thanks, too, to the Museum of Anthropology of the University of
Michigan for allowing me to photograph materials in its collections to serve
as illustrations throughout the book. Especial thanks to Kay Clahassey,
David Kennedy, Jill Morrison, and Henry Wright. Several individuals have
read various sections or drafts of this manuscript along the way. I have not
necessarily heeded all of their comments-probably unwisely-but I am
grateful for their advice, critiques, and encouragement. I would like to
thank Michelle Hegmon, Ed Jackson, Susan Pollock, and VIrginia VItzthum.
Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their
comments and criticisms, and to Eliot Wemer of Plenum Press for his
support and patience.
Contents
1
Approaehes to Arehaeologieal Cera mies 1
2
Defining Ceramies ............................................ 9
Raw Materials .............................................. 9
Forming Ceramic Vessels .................................... 15
Raw-Material Acquisition ................................ 15
Preparing Raw Materials. . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Hand-Building Techniques ............................... 17
Wheel-Building Techniques .............................. 21
Finishing Ceramic Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Firing Ceramic Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Firing Contexts ......................................... 31
Pottery Manufacture in Rural South India: A Case Study ....... 33
Defining Ceramics: Discussion ............................... 41
Suggested Readings ......................................... 42
3
Studying Arehaeologieal Ceramies 43
Obtaining Ceramic Sampies for Analysis ...................... 46
Approaches to Typology ..................................... 49
Intuitive Typology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Type-Variety Method of Typology .................... 52
xi