Local Potters Research Articles

Reconsidering Technological Transmission: The Introduction of the Potter’s Wheel at Ayia Irini, Kea, Greece

This article examines processes of cultural and technological transmission by focusing on the effects of the introduction of the potter’s wheel. Since distinct production choices are tied to both micro- and macroscale processes that drive change in material culture, a study of such choices provides insight into processes of acculturation, technological transmission, and local social dynamics. The authors therefore examined macroscopically a large corpus of complete vessels from Ayia Irini, Kea, for evidence of the manufacturing technique(s) used in the production process. These locally produced pots, dating to the period spanning the Middle and Late Bronze Age in the Aegean (ca. 1900–1400 B.C.E.), when Ayia Irini acted as a hub of interregional exchange, attest to the adoption of the wheel by the local potters, presumably through contact with Cretan communities of practice who were already using this technique. Evidence for connections between local, Cretan, and Cycladic communities of practice is presented, and the reasons driving the process of innovation are considered. The results of this study confirm some established narratives about the introduction of the wheel but at the same time reveal significant differences between Aegean communities in their adoption of this new technology. A free, downloadable appendix can be found under this article’s abstract on AJA Online.

POTTERY PRODUCTION IN THE MORDOVIA DISTRICT: ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

The paper tells about the results of systematization and analysis of ethnography data on pottery production in Mordovia district, collected by alexander a. Bobrinsky in the beginning of 1960th during complete questionnaire work. there are 75 messages as from the potters themselves (very rare) as from their younger relatives, local school-teachers, and others. then became clear that most of the local potters were russian migrants (not the Mordovians) lived here from 17-18th centuries. distribution the russian pottery traditions destroyed the local Mordovian ones preserved only in traces. But the russian potters in Mordovia had retained more archaic pottery traditions than the same potters resided in russia. Just these traditions have a lot of interest to study. the author investigates the Mordovian pottery production through the system of Historical-and-cultural approach according to the universal structure of pottery technology and the whole pottery production process as a field of the human culture.

Cechy obce i lokalne w średniowiecznej i nowożytnej ceramice elbląskiej. Zarys problematyki na podstawie wybranych przykładów

The article touches the problem of foreign and local features’ identification distinguished in Elbląg pottery craft. In case of mediaeval vessels it is difficult to state, which characteristics can be regarded as foreign and which are prescribed to local tradition, what is a direct consequence of various ethnic and geographical origin of the town inhabitants. Technologically and stylistically the oldest vessels include the examples defined as traditional. They differ clearly from predominating grey products, characteristic for the settlers coming from German territories. Characteristic features describing North German and Middle German workshops are clearly readable in case of vessels originating from one collection – pottery kiln dated from the 70s–80s of 13 th century. In majority of cases they enable to identify vessels produced there with the terrains of the Upper Saxony and Thuringia, to a lesser extent with the area of northern Germany. First half of 14 th century is the period when Elbląg vessel assortment is enriched by examples of treepod vessels, earlier not produced by local potters. At the turn of 15 th century, Elbląg craftsmen began to kiln their products in oxidizing atmosphere and coat them with glaze (initially only from the inside). At present it is difficult to state if these two novelties were accepted by the means of foreign influences or they were the results of local factors. Elbląg modern pottery displays foreign impacts – in technology and the mode of decorating, which is seen evidently in case of dishes defined as Pomeranian faience. Elbląg potters, and generally Prussian craftsmen, not wanting to be pushed off by Delft competitors, learned the way of faience vessels production and accepted their way of decorating. In the first stage, i.e. in 1 st half of 18 th century, they were nearly solely ‘Chinese’ motifs, copied from Far East porcelain, first by Netherland painters and next the ones from Prussia. In 2 nd half of that century, Far East motifs are met rather rarely, although imitating patterns of Netherland ceramics is still visible. These few examples indicate univocally that foreign and local features are clearly observable not only in case of imports, but also in local craft products, although it is difficult sometimes to state evidently which of them and for which social group they were foreign and which local.

A DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGICAL STUDY OF HATCHED CERAMICS: TRACKING CHACOAN MIGRANTS IN THE MIDDLE SAN JUAN

This study addresses the relationship between two well-excavated Chacoan great houses in the Middle San Juan (MSJ), Aztec and Salmon, and great houses in Chaco Canyon. We examine a common ceramic database to ascertain whether technological features o f paste and temper in conjunction with a design symmetry analysis of patterns in the Chaco Design System (CDS) show evidence for an initial migration of Chacoan craftspeople north into the MSJ and later emulation of Chacoan ceramic traits by local potters. Our results indicate that about half the vessels with hachured designs within the CDS at these two great houses were made somewhere in the Chaco-Cibola production area, suggesting they were brought to the sites. The remaining half were made with local clay and temper resources in the MSJ, indicating that they were either made as copies of Chaco designs or made by immigrant Chacoan potters.

Firing techniques of black slipped pottery from Nepal (12th–3rd century B.C.): The role of Mössbauer spectroscopy

Abstract Previously published results have preliminarily characterised the prehistoric production (12th–3rd century B.C.) of black slipped pottery recovered from the excavations of Gotihawa, in Kapilbastu District in Southern Nepal. Some clayey materials, still used nowadays by local potters for producing vessels, have been collected in the surroundings of the site and analysed. Two different ceramic classes have been particularly investigated: the so-called Black Slipped Ware (BSW) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). So far it has not been possible to define clearly distinctive markers of these on the basis of either archaeological studies or archaeometric analyses. The main result obtained for the NBPW and BSW pastes is the high compatibility with the examined clays. The use of local clays for artefacts manufacturing is therefore assured. More interesting information is obtained by analysing the glossy layers of the two classes. Three groups of glosses have been evidenced in which the differences are related to the different amounts of potassium, iron and aluminium oxides. The glosses of the Al-group present values of aluminium higher than the corresponding pastes; in the AlFe-group glosses the quantities of aluminium and iron are very high, and finally in the third group (KAlFe) all three elements are more abundant than in the pastes. Practically all the BSW glosses fall in the AlFe group, while the NPBW glosses are distributed in the three groups. Other information regarding working techniques, in particular the firing conditions of the artefacts, have to be clarified in order to assess the whole manufacturing process. The detailed reconstruction of the firing techniques of such artefacts with the usual analytical methodologies (XRF, XRD and observation in thin section) is highly problematic due to the peculiar features of the samples. The low calcium content gives rise to an extremely simple mineralogical composition, without any of the calcium silicates which usually form during firing, and give indications on the firing temperature. Moreover, the absence of crystalline iron oxides in the diffractograms limits the possibility to evaluate the firing temperature to the sole estimate of illite content. The determination of the firing atmosphere is mainly based on a visual examination of the colour of the sample pastes and slips. In an attempt to better define the range of firing temperatures, we have chosen to use Mossbauer spectroscopy on the basis of the high content of iron of the samples. In fact, 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy allows the identification of mineral phases to be used as a “mineralogical thermometer”, such as spinel phases, hercynite and metallic iron. Also, the calculation of the reduction index (Fe2+/FeTOT) yields interesting information regarding the firing technology, and particularly the control of the firing atmosphere by the potter. These results seem to be possibly linked to previous data obtained from the EDS chemical analyses of the above-mentioned three groups of slips.

Let the Dead Teach the Living: The Rise of Body Bequeathal in 20th-Century America

America's medical schools have long used human cadavers to teach anatomy, but acquiring adequate numbers of bodies for dissection has always been a challenge. Physicians and medical students of the 18th and 19th centuries often resorted to robbing graves, and this history has been extensively examined. Less studied, however, is the history of body acquisition in the 20th century, and this article evaluates the factors that coalesced to transition American society from body theft to body donation. First, it describes the legislation that released the unclaimed bodies of those dying in public institutions to medical schools for dissection, thereby effectively ending grave robbery. Then it discusses midcentury journalistic exposés of excesses in the funeral industry-works that were instrumental in bringing alternatives, including the previously unpopular option of body donation, to public consciousness. Finally, it examines the rise of body transplantation, the Uniform Anatomical Gifts Act of 1968, and the subsequent state of willed-body programs at the turn of the 21st century. Body-donation programs have gradually stabilized since and currently provide most of the bodies used for dissection in American medical schools. Relying as they do on public trust, however, these programs remain potentially precarious and threatened by public scandals. Whether American medical schools will receive enough bodies to properly educate students in the future remains to be seen.

Clay, Conflict, and Village Aggregation: Compositional Analyses of Pre-Classic Pottery from Taos, New Mexico

As was the case throughout much of north-central New Mexico, the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries marked a period of rapid settlement pattern change in the Taos District as dispersed pithouse and small pueblo hamlets were replaced by tightly clustered pueblos and ultimately by the emergence of large aggregated villages. Here we consider the effects of this transition on the manner in which local potters procured raw clay for the production of black-on-white ceramics. Adopting the Rio Grande del Rancho drainage as our study area, we first outline the major clay sources within the drainage. We then report on neutron activation and petrographic analyses of both modern clays as well as archaeological ceramics from sites that span the settlement transition in question. These analyses suggest that settlement aggregation was accompanied by a noticeable reduction in the diversity and quality of clay sources used by local potters, most likely as a result of newly restricted procurement strategies associated with the formation of buffer zones between village aggregates. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of this trend with respect to the economic situation of early large villages in the area.

Meaning in the making: The potter’s wheel at Phylakopi, Melos (Greece)

It is now commonly accepted that technology is, to its very core, a social product through which we can explore cultural choices. This cultural dimension of technology will be examined with reference to the introduction and use of the potter’s wheel at Phylakopi on Melos (Greece) during the Late Bronze Age. At this site, the co-existence of two different manufacturing techniques was so deeply embedded that, despite the presence of hybrid vessels, many aspects of the pottery production had become linked to either a local (hand-built) or Minoanising (wheel-thrown) tradition. It will be argued that the traditional hand-building technique was associated with individual and rooted facets of the Melian identity (such as kinship, social class, or gender). Reasons for the initial stimulus for adoption of the potter’s wheel are considered to lie in its potential for competitive social practice through association with exotic, symbolically laden technologies, craft products and consumption rituals. The gradual application of the technology to ever more complex vessels, on the other hand, corresponds to the apprenticeship sequence outlined by Roux and Corbetta and may indicate an incomplete learning process or a certain lack of practice opportunities among local potters.

Caracterização etnopedológica de Planossolos utilizados em cerâmica artesanal no Agreste Paraibano

Técnicas adaptadas da etnociência clássica foram utilizadas para descrever e avaliar os conhecimentos de um grupo de artesãos camponeses do Agreste Paraibano sobre alguns solos que eles usam como recurso cerâmico. Cinco perfis de solo foram descritos por agrônomos-pesquisadores (abordagem eticista) e por camponeses (abordagem emicista), em locais onde a população local extrai material para cerâmica. Amostras coletadas em ambas as abordagens foram usadas para caracterização morfológica e analítica desses solos. Os camponeses pesquisados foram capazes de distinguir, identificar e nomear diversos materiais de solo, arranjados em estratos ao longo dos perfis de solo, de modo comparável ao arranjo dos horizontes pedogenéticos. A visão, o tato e o paladar foram empregados pelos artesãos na avaliação da qualidade do solo para cerâmica. Quatro perfis descritos junto às fontes de material cerâmico foram classificados como Planossolo Nátrico e um como Planossolo Háplico. A realização de pesquisas etnopedológicas em diferentes contextos sociais e pedológicos pode contribuir para o avanço da ciência do solo, sendo também uma oportunidade para melhor compreender as formas camponesas de conhecimento e manejo de solos.

Technology of production of red figure pottery from Attic and southern Italian workshops

Samples from Greek figure vases were investigated by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction, thermomechanical analysis and reflectance spectroscopy to achieve a technological characterisation. The vases, dating from the end of the sixth to the fourth century BC, had been excavated at Locri Epizephiri (Calabria, Italy) and attributed to Attic or local workshops, respectively. Information on the morphology of black slip areas and firing temperatures was compared with that previously obtained for Attic and local black gloss pottery from the same site; results show that the peculiar technique required for the production of black slips was mastered by both Attic and local potters and employed for monochrome and figured products. The black coating is usually well vitrified and 15- to 20-microm thick; the evaluated maximum firing temperature is around 900 degrees C, while a temperature lower than 800 degrees C is generally estimated for ceramic body re-oxidation.

Köşk Höyük: Anadolu Arkeolojisine Yeni Katkılar

Excavations at Kosk Hoyuk have produced important informations about the Central Anatolian Prehistoric period. The Architecture is predominantly Anatolian in plan and material, and evidence from Kosk Hoyuk has contributed to an understanding of metallurgy from the period: small pieces of copper ore, found in front of an oven in level I, were processed into small pieces but were probably deemed unworthy for further processing or smelting. Besides the Anatolian type of the burial practices at the site, the discovery of plastered skulls, characteristic of Near Eastern Aceramic Neolithic, makes Kosk Hoyuk unique. Pottery is monochrome or painted, some bearing relief or incised decoration. The vessels with relief decoration, which form an important group among the finds, were produced by local potters. Relief decoration was used to render natural representations of local fauna, which must have been considered sacred. Material culture dating to the transitional period between the Late Neolithic to the Chalcolithic Period (end of 6th millennium, beginning of the 5th millennium BC), has helped to shed light on a period known from only a few settlements.

Late Archaic Polychrome Pottery from Aiani

Excavations at the necropolis of Aiani have yielded fifty-six locally produced polychrome vases dated to the second quarter of the 5th century B.C. The shapes and decoration appear to have no immediate predecessors, and no descendants, in the local tradition, and no close parallels in Macedonian or foreign wares. Some influence of local terracotta production and certain relationships with various wares produced in Central Greece, Attica, and East Greece can be traced, but the manufacture of this pottery owes less to direct imitation than to the experimentation and inventiveness of the local potters. This article presents this interesting group of pottery and examines the society that produced and used it.

Corrugated Pottery, Technological Style, and Population Movement in the Mimbres Region of the American Southwest

An understanding of small-scale population movements is essential to recent research on migration. Consideration of the technological style (processes of manufacture) of pottery, in conjunction with petrographic sourcing analyses, provides means of identifying and interpreting population movements at various scales. Diverse styles characterizes Postclassic Mimbres (A.D. 1150-early 1200s) regional reorganization in southwest New Mexico. One new style, indented corrugated pottery, is similar to northern types. Postclassic assemblages include both roughly and finely made examples, both locally produced. The finely executed vessels were made by migrants from the north and possibly by local potters who learned the northern techniques. The roughly made vessels were produced by local potters who copied the technique. The rough and fine vessels are found in the same contexts, suggesting no spatial or temporal differentiation. Thus in-migration to the eastern Mimbres area involved individuals or small groups who joined a preexisting network, possibly through intermarriage.

A study of coptic pottery from kharga oasis

The splendor of Coptic pottery IS mainly due to its environmental and religious aspects. But, little is known about that pottery despite of all the efforts in the researches on Late Roman Pottery Egypt made several great scholars such as Hays!’, Petrie”, Egloff(3), Winklock(4), Jackpuet” and Rodziewicz.i’” In addition, the researches on the Christian potteryinEgypt are still uncompleted. This paper attempts to focus on Coptic pottery from Kharga Oasis trying to trace the artistic role played by local potters in that southern part of Egypt during the Christian era. It is worthy mentioning here, that the excavated pottery from Kharga are extremely valuable in studing the optic potery from egypte

Glass-Making and the Sixth Legion at York

It has long been accepted that the Roman soldier was as likely to be engaged in craft or building activities as he was in specifically military ones such as fighting or drill practice. Vegetius listed the specialists that could be expected in a legion. They included builders of various types, people who could make vehicles, armourers, and weaponsmiths. The soldiers in auxiliary units also needed similar skills as the lists dating to the beginning of the second century at Vindolanda make clear. These gave details of the numbers of men engaged in different activities, and noted builders, shoemakers, and men working at some type of kiln or furnace. The archaeological evidence shows that the range of craftsmen was a large one. Potting industries were set up when the local potters did not provide the suite of vessels the soldiers required. Metalsmiths turned their hands to enamelled vessels as well as utilitarian items with a more obviously military function such as harness-fittings and studs. This paper will explore another possible facet of military craftsmanship, that of the manufacture and working of glass which is suggested by the recovery of glass-melting pots and partially reacted glass batch material at 16–22 Coppergate, York.

The making of Aegean stirrup jars: technique, tradition, and trade

This paper presents the results of a project designed to investigate the techniques used to make late bronze age Aegean stirrup-jars and to determine whether the identified techniques were influenced by regional-cultural factors. The project was initiated by the need to address the question of whether 12th-cent. BC stirrup-jars from Tell es-Sa'idiyeh in the Jordan valley, apparently of local clay, were made by local potters or by immigrant Mycenaeans. The stirrup-jars studied comprised examples from Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Gezer, the Greek mainland, Aegina, Rhodes, Cyprus, Caria, and Egypt. Xeroradiography was used to elucidate variations in construction techniques, and the findings were tested by practical experimentation. The observations indicate that there is a degree of linkage between the techniques of manufacture and cultural background. In order to make the discussion of production techniques more secure, neutron activation analyses were also carried out; these provided information on the place of manufacture as opposed to the find-spot, and have also thrown some interesting light on patterns of trade in the Mediterranean area towards the end of the Late Bronze Age.