De-mystifying Pottery Production in the Maya Lowlands: Detection of Traces of Use-Wear on Pottery Sherds through Microscopic Analysis and Experimental Replication

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1133-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra L. López Varela ◽  
Annelou van Gijn ◽  
Loe Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Pottery Sherds ◽  
Experimental Replication

Functions of early Iron Age handstones. Experimental and traceological approach.

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-289
Author(s):  
Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowska ◽  
Justyna Baron ◽  
Aneta Buchner ◽  
Michał Lipert ◽  
Izabela Ziewiecka
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Soft Materials ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Sw Poland ◽  
Household Activities

AbstractThe multi-faceted analyses proved that the community of early Iron Age settlement (7th century BC) at Milejowice in SW Poland used easily accessible, erratic pebbles of similar shapes for various purposes. Referring to the results of our experimental work, we examined a collection of 46 stone objects found in various contexts. Using microscopic analysis of use-wear, we identified the handstones for grinding grain and plant stalks and also used for pottery production (grog obtaining) and decoration (red pigment powdering). Some of the handstones served for only one purpose, while the other might have been used to process both hard and soft materials. The distribution of the handstones in the settlement area showed that they were strongly associated with household activities which included both food processing and pottery manufacturing.

IDENTIFYING DOMESTIC CERAMIC PRODUCTION IN THE MAYA LOWLANDS: A CASE STUDY FROM UXBENKA, BELIZE

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian M. Jordan ◽  
Keith M. Prufer
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Ceramic Production ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

Utilitarian ceramic vessels form the bulk of artifact assemblages in the Maya Lowlands, but little is known about their production beyond the likelihood that they were made in a domestic context without elite involvement. Characterizing the production and distribution of these vessels is vital to understanding ancient Maya economic systems; nevertheless, this is a difficult task in the absence of primary production locales. We use spatial data, use-wear analyses on stone and ceramic tools, and analyses of finished products to identify households involved in ceramic production at three settlement groups at Uxbenka, Belize, during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600–800). Our analyses indicate that Uxbenka potters were likely involved in some level of residential specialization focused on specific vessel forms. These data, in conjunction with ceramic data from nearby Lubaantun and Nim Li Punit, suggest that all three polities were self-sufficient in terms of utilitarian pottery production and primarily engaged in intrapolity distribution. We argue that this self-sufficiency is due to widely available resources, smaller population sizes, and the availability of high quality agricultural lands.

scholarly journals Local provenance of raw materials for prehistoric pottery production at the Spasovine tin placer site (Western Serbia)

Starinar ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Wayne Powell ◽  
Lina Pacifico ◽  
Terrence Mitchell ◽  
Steffanie Cruse ◽  
Arthur Bankoff
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Group Mineral ◽  
Prehistoric Pottery ◽  
Pottery Sherds ◽  
The Town ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Ore Grade

Archaeological finds at Spasovine, on the south flank of Mt Cer, near the town of Milina, indicate that it was settled in the Eneolithic and seasonally inhabited for tin placer mining in the Late Bronze Age. The site is highly disturbed and abraded domestic pottery is the most common material found. An analysis of the mineralogical assemblages that comprise the temper sand in a subset of the prehistoric pottery sherds from the site indicate that the sand was obtained from the adjacent Milinska River. Key minerals that link the pottery to on-site production from local materials include almandine-spessartine series garnets, the tin-bearing mineral cassiterite (SnO2) and a microlite group mineral ([Ca,Sn,U]2[Ta,Nb]2O6(OH,F]). The unusually common occurrence of cassiterite within the pottery sherds relative to the abundance in the Milinska today suggests that the tin ore grade in the Milinska River may have been significantly higher in prehistory.

Stone-Tool Production and Exchange in the Eastern Maya Lowlands: The Consumer Perspective from Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. McAnany
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Specialized Production ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Metric Dimensions

Ongoing controversy over the identification of mesoamerican centers as the locus for specialized production of stone tools is addressed by reference to a consumer locality in the eastern Maya Lowlands. Lithic data from Pulltrouser Swamp are used to shed light on the production intensity and scale of a distribution system centered at Colha, Belize. Debitage analyses of technological attributes, use wear, and metric dimensions contrast two contexts of lithic procurement at Pulltrouser Swamp: direct procurement of raw material and indirect procurement of finished tools. Each procurement context results in debitage with different variable states. Characterization of the Colha chert lithic material at Pulltrouser Swamp as a consumer assemblage is supported further by the results of a discriminant analysis in which an experimental "consumer" assemblage is classified with the Colha chert. Such characterizations of lithic assemblages are more robust methodologically and more informative substantively than attempts at the quantification of production or usage rates. The implications of scalar differences in production systems are discussed.

An archaeometric study of early Copper Age pottery from a cave in Romania

Clay Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Enea-Giurgiu ◽  
Corina Ionescu ◽  
Volker Hoeck ◽  
Tudor Tămaş ◽  
Cristian Roman
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Ceramic Body ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Alkali Feldspar ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Magmatic Rocks ◽  
Thermal Changes ◽  
Pottery Sherds

AbstractEarly Copper Age pottery sherds discovered in a cave within the crystalline dolomites of the Southern Carpathians (Romania) were investigated by polarized light optical microscopy (OM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) to obtain information on the pottery production in the Copper Age in the territory of present-day Romania. Microscopically, the clayey matrix of the ceramic body is highly birefringent or consists of low-birefringent and isotropic parts mixed together, containing fragments of quartz, muscovite, alkali feldspar, plagioclase, biotite, chlorite, heavy minerals and metamorphic and magmatic rocks, as well as an opaque material. The EMPA data revealed an Fe-rich illite-like matrix and helped to identify the mineral nature of the inclusions. Local pottery production in bonfires or surface clamps is envisaged. Miocene illitic clays may have been used as raw materials, mixed with a small amount of sandy temper. The thermal changes revealed by OM, the modification of the XRPD peaks and the EMPA data suggest firing temperatures of between 800 and 850°C.

The Pottery Technology from Bukit Tengkorak, a 3000–5000 Year Old Site in Borneo, Malaysia

1996 ◽  
Vol 462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Vandiver ◽  
Stephen Chia
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Open Pit ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Pottery Technology ◽  
Prehistoric Pottery ◽  
Animal Bones ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Pottery Sherds

Bukit Tengkorak (Scull Hill) is a Neolithic period rock shelter complex and prehistoric pottery production site in southeastern Sabah, about 5 miles southwest of Semporna in Borneo, Malaysia at GPS N 4 7 20.08 and E 118 37 04.3. It was excavated for a 5-week season in 1995 and another in 1994 by a joint University of Science and Sabah Museum team under the direction of S. Chia. Two areas with volcanic outcrops about 10 meters apart were excavated. A total of 6 one-meter squares, three in each area, were excavated in 5 cm layers. The three rock shelter trenches, G17, G19 and J19, were excavated to the base of undisturbed cultural deposits, about one and one half meters deep. The main archaeological materials excavated from these squares comprised pottery sherds, stone tools, molluscs and fish and animal bones. Thick layers of ash, measuring 50 to 80 cm, were associated with the pottery sherds in the three rock shelter squares, suggesting that they could have been the remnant of an open pit kiln or pit kilns used for firing the pottery. In the lower outcrop, the three trenches R13, S37 and T38, were excavated near earlier archaeological excavation by Bellwood (1). Our excavation in this area revealed large deposits of clays not found elsewhere in this locale that were probably brought to the shelter to be used as raw material for making pottery. No food remains such as animal and fish bones or unworked shells were found in this area, leading credence to the interpretation of this as a craft working area for the production of pottery and stone and shell tools.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document