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Lecture 9 — Pottery & People: Tracing Identity in the Ancient World

Big idea: Pottery is one of archaeology’s most informative technologies. Because ceramics preserve well and encode choices about materials, form, and decoration, they allow archaeologists to reconstruct identity, social networks, learning, and political economy in the past.

Why pottery matters

Ceramics are especially powerful because they are:

  • Highly durable
  • Ubiquitous once invented
  • Extremely versatile in form and function

The invention of ceramics is often considered as transformative as the invention of writing.

Origins of ceramic technology

Timing & diffusion (not “progress”)

  • East Asia: ~20,000–14,000 BCE
  • Japan: ~14,500 BCE
  • Africa: ~9,000 BCE
  • Southwest Asia: ~7,000 BCE
  • Western Europe: ~5,000 BCE
  • South America: ~4,000 BCE
  • North America: ~3,000 BCE

Key point:
Regions without pottery (aceramic) are not less developed — ceramic adoption depends on environment, needs, and traditions.

Basic terminology

  • Ceramic / pottery: fired clay objects
  • Potsherd (potshard): broken fragment of ceramic material
  • Aceramic: periods or regions without pottery use

Anatomy of a pot (or sherd)

Key components archaeologists analyze:

  • Clay
  • Temper (inclusions)
  • Porosity
  • Color
  • Shape & decoration

Structural parts:

  • Rim
  • Neck
  • Shoulder
  • Body
  • Base / feet

Even small sherds can preserve diagnostic information.

Pottery as social communication

Style is not random

Style functions as:

  • A means of communication
  • A marker of group affiliation or status
  • A response to social tension or interaction
  • A material expression of identity

Pottery is often tied to food, making it especially visible in social life.

How pots are made: technology choices

Materials

  • Clay (base material)
  • Temper (sand, shell, limestone, plant matter)
  • Prevents cracking during drying and firing
  • Defines the paste

Production sequence

  1. Clay selection and tempering
  2. Forming (coiling, slab-building, pinching, paddling)
  3. Drying
  4. Firing (~1100–1850°F)

Firing conditions (temperature, oxygen) affect color and hardness.

Studying ceramic composition

Analytical methods

  • Petrography: microscopic analysis of temper
  • NAA / ICP-MS: elemental composition of clay or paste

Important distinctions:

  • Clay sources reflect tradition, access, and preference
  • Paste composition is often invisible to consumers
  • Surface style is visible and socially legible

Social networks in pottery

“Tell me what your pot is made of…”

  • Paste composition → strong social ties (shared recipes, tradition)
  • Surface style → weaker ties (imitation, innovation)

Example: Appalachian region (AD 800–1600)

  • Different tempers = distinct social networks
  • Surface styles cross-cut paste traditions

Insight: bonding (internal cohesion) vs. bridging (external connections).

Learning to make pottery

Pottery is a learned skill, transmitted socially.

Learning involves:

  • Observation
  • Imitation
  • Repetition
  • Shared spaces and instruction

Motor skills and control improve over time.

Children, learning, and fingerprints

Evidence for learning includes:

  • Small, poorly finished vessels
  • Pinched figurines
  • Asymmetry and uneven thickness

Fingerprint analysis

  • Ridge breadth correlates with age
  • Results show:
  • Most figurines made by children
  • Large vessels made by adults
  • Adolescents acquire advanced skills

Pottery often reflects collaborative production.

Collaboration in craft production

One vessel may involve multiple hands:

  • Skilled potter forms vessel; novice decorates
  • Skilled potter paints over novice work
  • Different skill levels on different parts of same pot

Learning is embedded in production, not separate from it.

Form = function

Pot form constrains use:

  • Size → capacity & portability
  • Open forms → serving
  • Restricted forms → cooking
  • Closed forms → storage & transport

Assemblages: what’s for dinner?

A ceramic assemblage reflects:

  • Diversity of food-related activities
  • Degree of specialization
  • Scale of consumption
  • Social events (e.g., feasting)

Assemblages are about people, not just pots.

Politics of pottery: Mesopotamia

Case study: Sumer (5th–4th millennium BCE)

  • Economy centered on grain redistribution
  • Elite contexts:
  • Fine, decorated pottery
  • Wine consumption
  • Non-elite contexts:
  • Bevel-rimmed bowls
  • Mold-made, mass-produced
  • Standardized size

Interpretation: rationing, redistribution, and ideology made visible in ceramics.

What was in the pot?

Residue analysis

  • Biochemical analysis of absorbed oils and fats
  • Identifies food sources
  • Reconstructs ancient recipes

No more guessing.

Pottery beyond food: erotic ceramics

Ceramics also carry symbolic and ideological meaning.

Examples

Ancient Greece (1st millennium BCE)
- Painted erotic scenes - Courtship, marriage, prostitution - Found in burials → aspirations for the dead

Moche (Peru, 1st millennium CE)
- Sculpted erotic vessels - Non-reproductive acts - Themes of fertility, nature, life/death - Often looted → context loss

Takeaways

  • Pottery is a synthetic technology: every step encodes choice.
  • Ceramics reveal:
  • Identity
  • Learning and skill transmission
  • Social networks
  • Political economy
  • Consumption practices
  • Pots are not passive containers — they are active social artifacts.