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Ceramics/Kilns

Ceramic objects are the most abundant artifacts found in Near Eastern exca-vations and include clay pots, bricks, figurines, ovens, jewelry, and crucibles. Claycan be made into permanent shapes, large or small, which when fired to a rela-tively low temperature become as durable as rock. Clay occurs naturally as a prod-uct of the geological weathering and disintegration of rocks, an ongoing processeveryplace, thereby making clay readily available.

Variations in clays account for the different uses to which they are put. Pri-mary clays derive from a single rock type, unlike secondary clays, which are com-posed of more than one parent rock. The former are cleaner and can result infine, thin-walled pottery. Since secondary clays often travel some distance fromtheir place of origin due to water or wind action, they contain extraneous materi-als or impurities that impose restrictions on the potter. The different qualities ofclays impacted international trade in antiquity. From Greece and Cyprus, whereone finds a full range of clay types, beautiful, thin-walled, painted fine wares wereexported throughout the Middle East. In contrast, most clays of the Levant aresecondary clays well suited for utilitarian containers such as the jars containingagricultural products, which were shipped to the Mediterranean world. Potterscould produce fine wares in the Levant, but only when the society would supportan industry requiring a lengthy production process to clean the clay, after which itwas suitable for fine, thin-walled wares.

Making pottery, or ceramic containers, requires locating and mining the clay,transporting it to a work space, preparing it, shaping the pot, rendering the sur-face treatment, drying, firing, and distributing the finished product. Since clay isavailable in many places, potters have a choice between learning to work with alocally available clay or importing clay from a more distant source. The heavyweight of clay encourages the use of local deposits. Clay preparation involves sim-ple pounding and/or a more elaborate alteration of its composition by adding orremoving components. Large rocks are always removed, after which a potter usesthe clay as is or adds organic material (dung, straw, cattails, and so forth) or smallrocks to the cleaned clay. Additives to clays are known as nonplastics or temperingmaterials. Unlike the clay, whose plasticity allows it to be shaped and change itsform, the rock and mineral additives are a-plastic and change minimally through-out the firing. It is difficult to determine, even microscopically, whether the non-plastics are added or native to the clay. Ethnoarchaeological studies demonstratethat many potters add water exclusively to clay. Potters might mix two clays tobenefit from qualities inherent in each, especially if they present problems whenused individually.

Pottery-making appears deceptively easy. Considerable skill is required, how-ever, for all stages of the work, including the shaping, which traditionally involves:

<i>Near Eastern Archaeology : A Reader</i>, edited by Suzanne Richard, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mqu/detail.action?docID=3155514.Created from mqu on 2019-09-26 15:47:30.

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Ceramics/Kilns194

pinching; mold support; building insegments, coils, or slabs; wheel throw-ing; rotating on a turntable; or a com-bination of these techniques. Thechoice of clay and the degree to whichthe potter is able and willing to alterit determine the manufacturing tech-nique and every subsequent stage fromsurface treatment to firing. Clay con-taining abundant stones is difficult topaint, slip, burnish, and incise. Whileclay absorbs paint and slip, stones inthe clay cannot. Slip is a watery mixtureof the finest clay particles covering thesurface. Paint is a clay slip containing asmall amount of pigment and then ar-ranged in a pattern rather than appliedto the entire surface. A pot whose sur-face is rubbed with a hard object, suchas a shell, can have a burnish or shinysurface, if fired correctly. The sheendisappears if pottery has been fired toohigh. Clays containing abundant andlarge stones present problems for in-cised patterns; as the potter moves atool across the surface, there is a riskthat it will drag stones, thereby mar-ring the pattern.

Pottery must dry before firing and isthus never drier than the surroundingair. Dried but unfired pots can reabsorbmoisture from the air. Therefore pot-tery production is often seasonal work,restricted to the dry months. (Otherweather-related difficulties include mining wet clay, wet fuel, and wet kilns.)Fine clays with few nonplastics require the greatest care during the dryingphase. A slow, steady drying period in a protected place is preferable for allwares. Once dry, a handful of pots or even several hundred can be stacked andfired in a kiln or laid in a pit for one to twelve hours (figs. 33–34). Traditionalkilns are built of stone, brick, and/or organic materials. Pit kilns, especiallysuitable for large containers, are holes dug into the ground, then lined and cov-ered with organic materials. Fuels include wood, coconuts, palm fronds, dung,and so forth.

Fig. 33. After stacking 100–400 pots in the square-shaped kiln in Kornos, Anthoulla constructs a temporary door of bricks. Pots can touch each other in the kiln, but care is taken to avoid contact with the kiln floor and walls. Jugs, cooking pots, goat-milking pots, and lids discernible here are occasion-ally separated or supported by reused sherds and broken bricks. Since the brick door is built without mortar, the potters add small incense burners behind the bricks to maximize kiln space and heat. Kornos, Cyprus. G. London 2000.

<i>Near Eastern Archaeology : A Reader</i>, edited by Suzanne Richard, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mqu/detail.action?docID=3155514.Created from mqu on 2019-09-26 15:47:30.

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Ceramics/Kilns 195

Little is known about the organiza-tion of the ancient ceramics industry. Itwas a multifaceted industry with bothmale and female potters and assistantsworking in production locations rang-ing from small household courtyards,modest assembly line productions tolarger factory settings normally locatedaway from the main population cen-ters. Small workshops producing figu-rines near temples in urban centerssuggest that certain ceramic artifactswere highly valued in antiquity.

Pottery helps to determine the dateand function of the deposit in which itis found. Because clay pots break andcrack easily if they are dropped or ifwater splashes on them when they arehot, utilitarian pottery was replacedrapidly. As the pots were replaced,styles changed through time. There-fore, most sherds (or shards, pieces of abroken pot) and pots are datable to aspecific archaeological period. Potterymade in contemporaneous communi-ties within one region will vary, as doespottery made in different countriesduring the same time period. In addi-tion to chronological concerns, ceramiccontainers reflect local, regional, andinternational trade, as well as social in-teraction among neighbors. Pottery

informs us about diet, social conditions, economics, religion, mortuary practices,and technology.

BibliographyAmiran, R.

1969 Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Massada.Franken. H. J.

1971 Analysis of Methods of Potmaking in Archaeology. Harvard Theological Review64: 227–55.

Fig. 34. The last pots enter the kiln through the permanent dome-shaped roof after the kiln is stacked and the brick door is assembled. Suzanna reaches up with a flat-bottomed cooking pot and has an-other one ready if there is room. A circu-lar, flat sheet of metal will rest on top of the hole to close the roof opening after the last pot is put in place. Kornos, Cyprus.G. London 2000.

spread one pica short

<i>Near Eastern Archaeology : A Reader</i>, edited by Suzanne Richard, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/mqu/detail.action?docID=3155514.Created from mqu on 2019-09-26 15:47:30.

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