William Lucius on fri 18 jan 02
I know that I promised this some time ago, but grant writing and illness got
in the way. A recent thread about shipping clay is a perfect introduction.
Ceramic archaeologists have noted that in pedestrian societies (no canoes or
trucks) potters consistently live within 5 kilometers of their basic
resource base (clay, temper and fuel). If I wish to locate the potters who
made a distinctive red earthenware pottery between 700 and 900 A.D., all I
need to do is to characterize the particular clay and temper types in the
pots, find out where on the landscape that particular combination of
resources occurs and locate the nearby site where the potters had to have
lived.
That is a basic description of the Red Ware Project. Our second field
season in the Blanding, Utah area took place in June with 15 Forest Service
Passport in Time volunteers (three were potters). We collected clay and
temper samples as well as red ware pottery sherds, came a little closer to
finding out where the potters lived, made and fired pots with the
appropriate clay and temper combinations, spent many hours together in the
field and around the campfire and in general had a worthwhile and enjoyable
time.
I prefer teaching in a field camp situation - the subject matter extends
well beyond pottery and archaeology to tree identification and blister
management, the instruction begins at breakfast and ends when the campfire
goes out, the experience is hands-on and the small group interaction is both
predictable while wildly variable.
So why is it important to know where the potters lived? Well, this
particular red ware pottery was traded from where it was produced in
Southeastern Utah into parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. My
particular interest in archaeology is to understand the role of exchange and
interaction in the organization of agricultural society. And since red ware
exchange appears to have developed in order to maintain alliances between
widely dispersed populations, once I pinpoint where it was made I can
document how far and how much was moved, which will hopefully then allow me
to reconstruct the extent of the exchange network and understand the nature
of the social organization of the Ancestral Pueblo of the Northern
Southwest.
And if you were to ask why this is relevant today, I could respond that I
can apply the same approach (slightly modified since most of you do not
actually dig your own clay and crush igneous rock for temper) to you as an
individual potter. That is, I could characterize Mel's pots (perhaps the
combination of a specific glaze with a consistent clay body fired to
approximately cone 10) and determine their spatial distribution in order to
make some interpretive statements as to the economic social standing of his
patrons.
So where can you sign up to participate in the Blanding Red Ware Project?
You cannot (at this time). We have various grant proposals in the mill, but
the Blanding Red Ware is on hold until we secure funds to continue the
research. But hopefully we will need volunteers again, and retraining
potters is a lot of fun for all. Perhaps you will see a call for volunteers
in Clayart soon. Although I can do without the insects and the occasional
rattlesnake, I already miss the smell of the campfire, the sharing of meals
prepared by a camp cook, the thrill of discovery and the popping of pots in
an open kiln.
William A. Lucius
Institute for Archaeological Ceramic Research
845 Hartford Drive
Boulder, CO 80305
iacr@msn.com
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