Estimating Original Firing Tempieraiure in Low Fired Prehistoric Ceramics

  • PDF / 597,264 Bytes
  • 9 Pages / 420.48 x 639 pts Page_size
  • 102 Downloads / 144 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


ESTIMATING ORIGINAL FIRING TEMPIERAIURE IN LOW FIRED PREHI6TJ)RIC C.MICS; JAMES K. FEATHERS University of Washington. Department of Anthropology, Seattle, WA 98195 INTRODUCTION The river valley clays used for prehistoric pottery throughout much of Eastern North America require a nonplastic additive, or temper, to improve their workability and reduce drying shrinkage. During the Late Prehistoric (roughly after 900 AD) crushed shell was added as temper along most of the river valleys of the Midwest and along portions of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. The seemingly abrupt appearance of shell temper has been the subject of inquiry since the 1930's when stratigraphy and seriation placed shell tempered pottery late in chronological sequences [1,21. Ex