ARCH 2105: Ceramic Analysis for Archaeology
Friday, 3:00-5:20 PM
Rhode Island Hall Seminar Room
Jennifer Meanwell, [email protected], 401-863-6936
Office Hours: Friday 10:30-12:30 or by appointment
Course Wiki: http://proteus.brown.edu/ceramics2012/Home
This course is designed to familiarize students with the broad range of ceramic materials found in
archaeological investigations. These ceramic materials are used by archaeologists to accomplish a
variety of goals: create a chronology, document various activities, and identify cultural contacts and
exchange between regions. The course will focus on case studies as a way of understanding the theories
and techniques used in ceramic analysis.
The first half of the course will be lecture based and will examine the raw materials of ceramics, the
spectrum of ceramics used in archaeological contexts, and production techniques. The second half of
the course will be a seminar format, with a student discussion leader (or leaders) each week. These
seminars will focus on some of the major theoretical debates on how to interpret ceramics in
archaeological contexts. Students should select their topic of interest by October 5th in consultation
with the instructor.
Students will be expected to lead one of the seminar sessions during the second half of the course.
Depending on enrolment, some weeks may have two discussion leaders. The discussion leaders are
responsible for preparing a position paper (approximately 5 pages) on the topic for the week that draws
on the assigned readings as well as other relevant literature. Additional readings relevant to the
seminar topic should be posted to the private course Wiki for other students to read. The readings and
the position paper should be posted to the website at least 2 days before the class, so that everyone will
have a chance to prepare for the discussion.
Additionally, students will write a term paper (~20 pages) on some aspect of ceramic analysis in
discussion with the instructor. This topic should involve a theoretical question, some analysis that has
been performed, and should come from a geographic area of the world different from that where the
student does their own field work.
Assessment
Term Paper
Position Paper
Discussion Participation
Discussion Leading
35%
15%
25%
25%
Text
The main text book for the class will be Prudence Rice’s (1987/2006) Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook,
University of Chicago Press, Chicago. This text is the most broadly based book available on ceramic
analysis and contains a wonderful bibliography. Additionally, multiple readings will be taken from a
classic book on ceramics by Anna Shepard (1956) Ceramics for the Archaeologist, Carnegie Institution,
Washington. This book is well worth purchasing in a used form, and is also available for free online.
Readings taken from this book will be posted as PDFs on the class website. The entire book is available
at http://carnegiescience.edu/publications_online/ceramics_archaeologist/default.html
Weekly Schedule:
Part I
Week 1: INTRODUCTION (9/7)
Introduction to course aims and assignments. Working definition of a ceramic. History of
ceramics. Basic chemistry review.
Week 2: RAW MATERIALS (9/14)
Introductory geology. Weathering and deposition. Clay minerals. Crystalline structures and
basic classification of silicate minerals. Procurement strategies. (Porcelain, Jasperware, etc.)
Week 3: SPECTRUM OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMICS (9/21)
Mud plasters. Mortars and cementitious ceramic materials. Clay bodies and brick. Refractories.
Glass and glass ceramics (faience). Recycling of ceramic materials.
Week 4: FORMING (9/28)
Choice of clays. Clay properties. Clay processing. Temper additions. Hand-building techniques.
Wheel-thrown vessels. Drying and greenware. (Acoma potters/RISD Field Trip)
Week 5: DRYING AND FIRING (10/5)
Open-pit and draft furnace firing. Firing schedules. Decorative techniques (paints, slips, and
glazes) and re-firing. Kiln design and operation. Particulates. Sintering. Recrystallization. Grain
growth. Porosity. Refractory production. Solid-state reactions. (Chinese kilns and Greek Red
and Black ware)
Week 6: PROPERTIES OF CERAMICS (10/12)
Mechanical properties, fracture mechanics, toughness. Porosity, permeability. Thermal shock
resistance. Toughening strategies. (Middle Balsas pottery)
Week 7: PROVENIENCE (10/19)
Mineralogical and chemical approaches. Trace-element analysis. Ceramic ecology. (Carter case
study)
Part II
Week 8: CLASSIFICATION (10/26)
Chronology and typology. Seriation. Definition of wares in terms of technological
characteristics. Type-variety system.
Week 9: STYLE (11/2)
Definitions of “style” (decorative, technological). Analysis of technological style from a materials
science perspective.
Week 10: PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND EXCHANGE (11/9)
Uses of ceramics. Technical studies of production and exchange. Olmec controversy.
Week 11: SPECIALIZATION VERSUS STANDARDIZATION (11/16)
The interplay between technological evidence and economic models. Technological correlates
of specialization?
Week 12: FUNCTIONS OF POTTERY (11/30)
Artificial attempts to parse “function” (social, technological, etc.). Materials science perspective
on pottery function and ceramic engineering.
Week 13: RESEARCH DESIGN (12/7)
Sample selection and choice of analytical techniques. Constructing arguments from multiple
lines of evidence.
(Partial) Reading List:
Week 1: INTRODUCTION
Kingery, W.D.
1960 Introduction to Ceramics, 1st ed. Ch. 1 and 2, pp. 3-12; 15-32, Wiley and Sons, New York.
Rice, Prudence
2006 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Ch. 1, pp. 3-27, U. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Tite, Michael S.
2008 Ceramic Production, Provenance and Use: A Review. Archaeometry 50(2): 216-231.
Week 2: RAW MATERIALS
Rice, Prudence
2006 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Ch. 2, pp. 31-53, U. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Chiari, G., R. Giustetto, J. Druzik, E. Doehne, G. Ricchiardi
2007 Pre-columbian nanotechnology: reconciling the mysteries of maya blue pigment.
Applied Physics A 90: 3-7.
Shepard, Anna O.
1956 Ceramics for the Archaeologist. Ch. 1, pp. 6-30, Carnegie Institution, Washington.
Arnold, Dean
1985 Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process. Ch. 2 pp. 20-60. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Neupert, Mark A.
2000 Clays of contention: an ethnoarchaeological study of factionalism and clay composition.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 249-272.
Week 3: SPECTRUM OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL CERAMICS
Grose, D.F.
1984 The Origins and Early History of Glass. In The History of Glass. Klein, D. and Lloyd, W.
eds, pp. 9-37, Orbis Publications, London.
Lechtman, Heather and Linn Hobbs
1987 Roman Concrete and the Roman Architectural Revolution. In Ceramics and Civlization,
Vol III: High Technology Ceramics—Past, Present, and Future, W.D. Kingery, ed.pp 81-128.
American Ceramic Society, Westerville, OH.
Tite, Michael S, I.C. Freestone, M. Bimson
1983 Egyptian Faience : An Investigation of the Methods of Production. Archaeometry 25 (1):
17-27.
Gourdin, W.H and W.D. Kingery
1975 The Beginnings of Pyrotechnology: Neolithic and Egyptian Lime Plaster. Journal of Field
Archaeology 1/2: 133-150.
Week 4: FORMING
Shepard, Anna O.
1956 Ceramics for the Archaeologist. Ch. 2 part I, pp. 49-74 Carnegie Institution, Washington.
Rice, Prudence
2006 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Ch. 3 and 5, pp. 54-79 and 113-167, U. Chicago
Press, Chicago.
Gosselain, Olivier P.
1998 Social and Technical Identity in a Clay Crystal Ball. In The Archaeology of Social
Boundaries. Miriam T. Stark, ed. Smithsonian Institution Press. 78-106.
Week 5: DRYING AND FIRING
Rice, Prudence
2006 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Ch. 4, pp. 80-110, U. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Shepard, Anna O.
1956 Ceramics for the Archaeologist. Ch. 2 part II, pp. 74-94, Carnegie Institution,
Washington.
Livingstone Smith, A
2001 Bonfire II: The Return of Pottery Firing Temperatures. Journal of Archaeological Science
28:991-1003.
Pool, Christoper A.
2000 Why a Kiln? Firing Technology in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz (Mexico).
Archaeometry 42(1):61-76.
Sillar, B.
2000 Dung by Preference: The Choice of Fuel as an Example of How Andean Pottery
Production is Embedded within Wider Technical, Social, and Economic Practices. Archaeometry
42(1):43-60.
Week 6: PROPERTIES OF CERAMICS
Rice, Prudence
2006 Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Ch. 7, pp. 207-243, U. Chicago Press, Chicago.
Tite, M.S., V. Kilikoglou, and G. Vekinis
2001 Strength, toughness and thermal shock resistance of ancient ceramics, and their
influence on technological choice. Archaeometry 43(3): 301-324.
Cogswell, James W., Hector Neff, and Michael D. Glascock
1998 Analysis of Shell-Tempered Pottery Replicates: Implications for Provenance Studies.
American Antiquity 63(1):64-72.
Week 7: PROVENIENCE
Carter, Sidney W., Bettina Wiegand, Gail A. Mahood, Francis O. Dudas, Joseph L. Wooden, Alan P.
Sullivan III, and Samuel A. Bowring
2011 Strontium Isotopic Evidence for Prehistoric Transport of Gray-Ware Ceramic Materials in
the Eastern Grand Canyon Region, USA. Geoarchaeology 26(2): 189-218.
Blomster, J. et al.
2005 Olmec Pottery Production and Export in Ancient Mexico Determined Through Elemental
Analyis. Science 307: 1068-1072.
Flannery, et al.
2005 Implications of New Petrographic Analysis for the Olmec “Mother Culture” Model.
PNAS 102(32) 11219-11223.
Neff, H. et al.
2006 Methodological Issues in the Provenance Investigation of Early Formative
Mesoamerican Ceramics. Latin American Antiquity 16(1): 54-76.
Neff, H. et al.
2006 Smokescreens in the Provenance Investigations of Early Formative Mesoamerican
Ceramics. Latin American Antiquity 17(1): 104-118.
Sharer, R. J. et al.
2006 On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of
Mesoamerican Societies. Latin American Antiquity 17(1): 90-103.
Stoltman, et al.
2005 Petrographic evidence shows that pottery exchange between the Olmec and their
neighbors was two-way. PNAS 102(32): 11213–11218.
Week 8: CLASSIFICATION
Rice, Prudence M.
1976 Rethinking the Ware Concept. American Antiquity 41(4):538-543.
Wheat, Joseph Ben, James C. Gifford, and William W. Wasley
1958 Ceramic Variety, Type Cluster, and Ceramic System in Southwestern Pottery Analysis.
American Antiquity 24(1):34-47.
Culbert, T. Patrick, and Robert L. Rands
2007 Multiple Classifications: An Alternative Approach to the Investigation of Maya Ceramics.
Latin American Antiquity 18(2):181-190.
Adams, Richard E. W.
2008 The Type: Variety-Mode System: Doomed to Success. Latin American Antiquity
19(2):222-223.
Adams, Richard E. W.
2008 The Type: Variety-Mode System: Doomed to Success. Latin American Antiquity
19(2):222-223.
Week 9: STYLE
Sackett, J. R.
1977 The Meaning of Style in Archaeology: A General Model. American Antiquity 42(369392).
1985 Style and Ethnicity in the Kalahari: A Reply to Wiessner. American Antiquity 50:154-159.
Wiessner, P.
1985 Style or Isochrestic Variation? A Reply to Sackett. American Antiquity 50:160-166.
Sterner, Judy
1989 Who is Signalling Whom?: Ceramic Style, Ethnicity and Taphonomy among the Sirak
Bulahay. Antiquity 63(240):451-459.
Lechtman, Heather.
1999 Afterword. In The Social Dynamics of Technology, Marcia-Anne Dobres and Christopher
R. Hoffman, eds, pp. 223-232. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
1977 Style and Technology: Some Early Thoughts. In Material Culture: Styles, Organization,
and Dynamics of Technology. Pp. 111-138. Seattle: Proceedings of the American Ethnology
Society, 1975.
Sillar, B. and M. S. Tite
2000 The Challenge of 'Technological Choices' for Materials Science Approaches in
Archaeology. Archaeometry 42(1):2-20.
Week 10: PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND EXCHANGE
Feinman, G. M.
1985 Changes in the Organization of Ceramic Production in Pre-Hispanic Oaxaca, Mexico. In
Decoding Prehistoric Ceramics. B.A. Nelson, ed. Pp. 195-223. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press.
Kamp, Kathryn A.
2001 Prehistoric Children Working and Playing: A Southwestern Case Study in Learning
Ceramics. Journal of Anthropological Research 57(4):427-450.
Rands, Robert L.
1961 Elaboration and Invention in Ceramic Traditions. American Antiquity 26(3):331-340.
Foias, Antonia E., and Ronald L. Bishop
1997 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Petexbatun Region, Guatemala:
Reconsidering the Classic Maya Collapse. Ancient Mesoamerica 8(2):275-291.
Crossland, L. B., and Merrick Posnansky
1978 Pottery, People and Trade at Begno, Ghana. In The Spatial Organization of Culture. I.
Hodder, ed. Pp. 77-89. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.
Zedeño, María Nieves.
1998. Defining Material Correlates for Ceramic Circulation in the Prehistoric Puebloan
Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Research, 54, 461-476.
Week 11: SPECIALIZATION VERSUS STANDARDIZATION
Arnold, Dean E.
2000 Does the Standardization of Ceramic Pastes Really Mean Specialization?. Journal of
Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 333-375.
Arnold, Dean, and Alvaro L. Nieves
1992 Factors Affecting Ceramic Standardization. In Ceramic Production and Distribution: An
Integrated Approach, edited by George Bey III and Christopher Pool, pp. 93-113. Westview
Press, Boulder.
Clark, John E. and William J. Parry
1990 Craft Specialization and Cultural Complexity. In Research in Economic Anthropology,
edited by Barry L. Isaac, pp. 289-346, vol. 12. JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
Costin, Cathy Lynne.
1991 Craft Specialization: Issues in Defining, Documenting, and Explaining the Organization of
Production. Archaeological Method and Theory 3:1-56.
Longacre, William.
1999 Standardization and specialization: what’s the link?. In Pottery and People: A Dynamic
Interaction, edited by James M. Skibo and Gary M. Feinman, pp. 44-58, Foundations of
Archaeological Inquiry series, series editor James M. Skibo, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake
City.
Sillar, Bill
1997 Reputable pots and disreputable potters: Individual and community choice in presentday production and exchange in the Andes. In Not so much a pot, more a way of life: Current
approaches to artifact analysis in archaeology, edited by C.G. Cumberpatch and P.W. Blinkhorn,
pp. 1-20, Oxbow Monograph 83, Oxford.
Week 12: FUNCTIONS OF POTTERY
Hendon, Julia A.
2003 Feasting at Home: Community and Solidarity among the Maya of Southeastern
Mesoamerica. In The Archaeology and Politicis of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires,
edited by Tamara L. Bray, pp. 203-233, New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Tite, Michael and Vassilis Kilikoglou.
2002. Do We Understand Cooking Pots and Is There an Ideal Cooking Pot? In Modern Trends in
Scientific Studies on Ancient Ceramics. V. Kilikoglou et al., eds. Archaeopress. 1-5.
Janusek, John Wanye
2002 Out of Many, One: Style and Social Boundaries in Tiwanaku. Latin American Antiquity
13(1):35-61.
Bernardini, Wesley.
2005. Reconsidering Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Prehistoric Cultural Identity: A Case
Study from the American Southwest. American Antiquity, 70, 31-54.
Bey, George
2003 The Role of Ceramics in the Study of Conflict in Maya Archaeology. In Ancient
Mesoamerican Warfare. M. Brown and T. Stanton, eds. Pp. 19-30. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira
Press.
Golden, Charles, Andrew K. Scherer, A. René Muñoz and Rosaura Vásquez
2008 Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan: Divergent Political Trajectories in Adjacent Maya Polities.
Latin American Antiquity 19(2):249-274.
Week 13: RESEARCH DESIGN
NSF proposals, as available
Costin, Cathy Lynne
2000 The Use of Ethnoarchaeology for the Archaeological Study of Ceramic Production.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7(4): 377-403.
Shepard, AnnaO.
1965 Problems of Pottery Classification: Uses and limitations of the type concept. In Ceramics
for the Archaeologist, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 609, pp. 306-322.
Washington.
Tite, MichaelS.
1999 Pottery production, distribution, and consumption: the contribution of the physical
sciences. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 6( 3): 181-233.
van der Leeuw, S.E.
1991. Variation, Variability, and Explanation in Pottery Studies. In Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology.
William A. Longacre, ed. University of Arizona Press. 11-39.