New Perspectives on Experimental Archaeology: Surface Treatments and Thermal Response of the Clay Cooking Pot

This paper examines pottery technology and change through the eyes of the experimental archaeologist. A new vision is presented of experimental archaeology and the role its findings can play in archaeological explanation. It is argued that the most useful results of experimental archaeology are best obtained with long-term research programs. This perspective is illustrated by a case study of the relations between surface treatments (interior and exterior) and thermal performance in cooking pots. The experiments indicate that surface treatments like texturing, organic coatings, and smudging have marked impacts on thermal shock cracking and on thermal spalling in simulated cooking. It is emphasized that the findings of experimental archaeology, expressed as correlates, can be employed in explanations of prehistoric technological change, but only when embedded in more inclusive correlate theories and coupled with the requisite contextual information.

[1]  Michael B. Schiffer,et al.  Technological Perspectives on Behavioral Change , 2022 .

[2]  Gordon Bronitsky,et al.  The Use of Materials Science Techniques in the Study of Pottery Construction and Use , 1986 .

[3]  James M. Skibo.  Pottery funtion. A use alteration perspective , 2020, Boletín de Antropología.

[4]  Michael B. Schiffer,et al.  A Provisional Theory of Ceramic Abrasion , 1989 .

[5]  Michael B. Schiffer,et al.  Theory and Experiment in the Study of Technological Change , 1987, Current Anthropology.

[6]  James M. Skibo,et al.  Use of a Falling-Weight Tester for Assessing Ceramic Impact Strength , 1988, American Antiquity.

[7]  T. Stone,et al.  The Thermal Properties of Textured Ceramics: An Experimental Study , 1990 .

[8]  D. Hally.  Use Alteration of Pottery Vessel Surfaces: An Important Source of Evidence for the Identification of Vessel Function , 1983 .

[9]  R. Hamer,et al.  Experiments in Ceramic Technology: The Effects of Various Tempering Materials on Impact and Thermal-Shock Resistance , 1986, American Antiquity.

[10]  Peter Bleed,et al.  The Optimal Design of Hunting Weapons: Maintainability or Reliability , 1986, American Antiquity.

[11]  Errett Callahan,et al.  Experimental Archaeology , 2021, Anthropology.

[12]  P. Gilman.  Architecture as Artifact: Pit Structures and Pueblos in the American Southwest , 1987, American Antiquity.

[13]  Behavioral Archaeology: Four Strategies1 , 1975 .

[14]  James M. Skibo,et al.  Organic-Tempered Pottery: An Experimental Study , 1989, American Antiquity.

[15]  Mark Nathan Cohen,et al.  Research and Development in the Stone Age: Technological Transitions among Hunter-Gatherers [and Comments and Reply] , 1981, Current Anthropology.

[16]  P. A..  Surface treatment and strength of low-fired ceramic bodies: An experimental study , 1989 .

[17]  Steven Michael West,et al.  Temper, thermal shock and cooking pots: A study of tempering materials and their physical significance in prehistoric and traditional cooking pottery , 1992 .

[18]  Owen S. Rye,et al.  Pottery Technology: Principles and Reconstruction , 1981 .

[19]  W. Kingery,et al.  Factors Affecting Thermal Stress Resistance of Ceramic Materials , 1955 .

[20]  H. Salmang,et al.  Ceramics : physical and chemical fundamentals , 1961 .

[21]  D. Crabtree.  Mesoamerican Polyhedral Cores and Prismatic Blades , 1968, American Antiquity.

[22]  B. K..  The Chemistry and Physics of Clays and other Ceramic Materials , 1924, Nature.

[23]  D. Hally.  The Identification of Vessel Function: A Case Study from Northwest Georgia , 1986, American Antiquity.

[24]  M A Neupert,et al.  Strength Analysis of the Transwestern Ceramic Assemblage , 1993 .

[25]  M. Schiffer.  The influence of surface treatment on heating effectiveness of ceramic vessels , 1990 .

[26]  David P. Braun.  Pots as Tools , 1983 .

[27]  Michael B. Schiffer,et al.  Archaeology as Behavioral Science1 , 1975 .

[28]  Miriam T. Stark,et al.  Ethnoarchaeology at the Top of the World: new ceramic studies among the Kalinga of Luzon , 1991 .

[29]  M. Schiffer.  The Portable Radio in American Life , 2022 .

[30]  Ruth Tringham,et al.  Experimentation, ethnoarchaeology, and the leapfrogs in archaeological methodology , 1978 .

[31]  Michael B. Schiffer,et al.  Effects of temper on ceramic abrasion resistance: a preliminary investigation , 1987 .

[32]  James M. Skibo,et al.  Kalinga Ethnoarchaeology: Expanding Archaeological Method and Theory , 1994 .

[33]  J. E. Ritter,et al.  Appraisal of biaxial strength testing , 1980 .

[34]  W. D. Kingery,et al.  Introduction to Ceramics , 1976 .