The World Within a Pot
Ceramic Analysis and Making a Pinch Pot
The Humble Sherd
For most archaeological sites, broken pots make up the majority of artifacts . Often, pots are found in small pieces called sherds (shards are pieces of glass). While a lot of information is lost do the nature of preservation, even a small sherd can provide valuable clues to how people lived. The source of the clay can tell us about trade. The ways the pots were shaped and fired tell us about how people learned skills and made choices about their pots. Chemical tests can tell us what people were storing or cooking inside the pots. Even the ways that broken pots were thrown away can tell us about the wealth of different households.
Decorations are also a great source of information. Images of people doing things can tell us about activities, Such as how they made the pot. Symbols can tell us about what people believed in. A vessel can be impressed with a pattern by tapping a paddle around the outside surface. The paddle can be carved with a design or wrapped with rope or cloth. When hit, the texture of the paddle or fabric will appear in the clay. For many sites without surviving textiles, this may be only way we can see how textiles were made and what they were made from.
At Town Creek Indian Mound, fired clay came into use around 3,000 years ago. Ceramics made during Mississippian Period, about 900–1400 CE, make up most of the ceramic artifacts found at TCIM. These artifacts include cups, cooking pots, bowls, urns, miniature vessels, game disks, effigies, beads and spoons. Most vessels served multiple functions. A few pots from this time period had incised or notched rims, but for most pots, the only decoration come from the surface finish.
After the pot was shaped, the surface was pressed or smoothed to help the clay particles bond more strongly. Sometimes the pot was smoothed or burnished to remove any irregularities from the surface. Some pot rims show scraping from corncobs. Many pots were struck with paddles to leave an impression. The paddle could have been carved with a design, like half circles or diamonds, or the paddle could have been wrapped in cords or fabric. For these impressions, we can learn a little about the mats, cords and fabrics that were used by the Mississippian people at Town Creek. Taken all together, each style of decoration can be used by archaeologist to sort and date the many ceramic sherds.
Pots in Your Life
- What do you use pots for today? What materials are they made of?
- Do you have any pots or other dishes that have been in your family for more than one generation? What meanings do you have for those items?
- Are there purposes for pots that people had in the past that have been replaced by other items today?
- Could pots or similar vessels be made from other materials that do not last as long? How would we be able to measure this?
The Making of a Pot
To make a pot, we need to have clay. For those of us that do not have clay available at the moment, we will start with an easy way to make playdough. Some recipes call for cream of tartar or for heating on the stove. However, a simple recipe will work here. The measurements here are good for one pinch pot. Double the recipe by the number of people who would like to make a pot.
Playdough Instructions
- ¼ cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 Tbsp. Salt
- 1 tsp Cocoa Powder
- 2 Tbsp. Warm Water, plus a few drops
1. Mix the flour, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl.
2. Slowly add in two Tbsp. of warm water and mix together.
3. The dough will start to clump up and when you can no longer stir, kneed it with your hands until all the dry ingredients are mixed into the water.
4. If the dough is too dry and cracks in your hands, fold in water one drop at a time. After three or four drops try to make a ball. Alternatively, if the dough gets too wet and is tacky or sticking to your fingers, add a pinch of flour. It should not take much effort to get the mixture to roll and pull apart like playdough.
Pinch Pot Instructions
1. Press the clay between the palms of your hands until it feels hard and is round. It does not have to be in a perfect circle or smoothed out, but all the air should be pressed out.
2. Hold the clay in the palm of one hand and use the thumb of the other hand to press down in the center to make a shallow impression. Turn the clay 90 degrees keeping the impression facing up. Press down with your thumb again to make an X shape. Keep turning the clay ball and pressing down until you have round center almost halfway deep.
3. Place both thumbs inside the bowl and your fingers along the outside. Press down or pinch, the clay. Turn and pinch the clay as you form the shape of your pot.
4. Once you have the shape you want, it is time to decorate.
5. When finished, set the pot upside down on a flat surface for 3–4 days. The color of your pot will lighten as it dries out. Because this is not a pot that will be fired it can only be used to store dry items. Adding a liquid will turn your pot into a mess of wet clay.
Decorate Your Pot
You can use a variety of items to make impressions on your pot. Here are a few suggestions:
- Natural items: pinecones, pine straw, pine sticks, small rocks, tree bark, seashells, or leaves.
- Household items: fork, spoon tip, dried pasta/penne/shells, Legos, buttons, lace scrap or textured fabric (these may not be washable), rope or twine wrapped around a stick.
Contact Us
If you would like to suggest a topic for a future activity or if you have any questions about this post, please email us at towncreek@ncdcr.gov.
Resources
Coe, Joffre Lanning. 1995. Town Creek Indian Mound: A Native American Legacy. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Price, Margo L, Patricia M. Samford and Vincas P. Steponaitis. 2001. Intrigue of the Past: North Carolina’s First Peoples, A Teacher’s Activity Guide for Fourth through Eighth Grades. Chapel Hill: Research Labs of Archaeology, University of North Carolina.
