Invention or diffusion: on the appearance of limestone temper in the late Holocene archeological record of southern Ohio, USA

Abstract

One of the most fundamental questions archeologists face is whether some form or expression of material culture appears at a specific geo-temporal position in the archeological record as a result of invention or diffusion. As one of the most common archeological phenomena, ceramic technology at different times and places was either invented by, or diffused across, prehistoric populations. Here, we investigate whether the use of limestone temper—an additive added to clay before firing—could have been indigenously invented by prehistoric people in southern Ohio, USA. Since current evidence suggests that limestone temper was used on a limited basis during the Middle Woodland period in southern Ohio, it follows that if it were invented there indigenously, then evidence for its invention should be present in that period or the period prior, that is, during later portions of southern Ohio’s Early Woodland period. We tested this hypothesis via an assessment of 32 Early and Middle Woodland pottery sherds from southern Ohio using the HCL method. Our results unequivocally show that small amounts of limestone were indeed present in these early periods, consistent with possibility that the independent invention of limestone temper in southern Ohio could have occurred.