The Identification of Vessel Function: A Case Study from Northwest Georgia

Abstract

Archaeologists now possess the knowledge and techniques necessary to identify pottery-vessel function with a reasonable degree of specificity. This article is intended to demonstrate that capability. The pottery vessel assemblage characteristic of the sixteenth-century Barnett phase in northwest Georgia consists of 13 physically and morphologically distinct vessel types. The mechanical performance characteristics of these vessel types are identified and employed in formulating hypotheses concerning the way vessel types were used. Historic Southeastern Indian food habits are reconstructed from ethnohistorical and ethnographic evidence and employed to refine the vessel-use hypotheses.

Changes in long bone diaphyseal strength with horticultural intensification in west-central Illinois

“…With maize intensification, Mississippian pottery was produced in more diverse forms, and included innovative wide-mouth globular pots suitable for boiling large quantities. Analysis of Mississippian pottery technology supports historic reports that indigenous diets emphasized boiling, which would have resulted in softer, more palatable foods (Hally, 1986;Swanton, 1979). Clearly, Mississippian populations continued and may even have expanded the Late Woodland emphasis on boiling as maize production was intensified.…”

Household Archaeology in the Southeastern United States: History, Trends, and Challenges

“…Several early studies in this vein took advantage of artifact assemblages associated with houses that had met catastrophic fates. Hally (1983aHally ( , b, 1984Hally ( , 1986, for example, studied vessel form and use-wear in domestic assemblages from the Little Egypt site in Georgia and compared them to ethnohistoric descriptions to reconstruct the pottery assemblage associated with a Barnett phase (A.D. 1550-1700) Mississippian household. Building on Hally's work, Shapiro (1984) compared ceramic assemblages from Mississippian sites of varying size to understand how vessel size and form correlated with permanence of occupation.…”

El análisis composicional en el estudio de la producción y distribución de la cerámica prehispánica

“…La inferencia de la función es un aspecto importante, pero elusivo, en la interpretación de la cerámica y su contexto social (Lumbreras, 2005). Requiere la consideración cuidadosa del contexto, forma, dimensiones y propiedades físicas y mecánicas de las vasijas y residuos de los contenidos originales (Henrickson & McDonald, 1983;Hally, 1986;Beaudry, 1988;Mills, 1989;Neupert, 1994;Rice, 1996;Saunders & Hays, 2004). La composición, tamaño y abundancia de las inclusiones en la pasta tiene un efecto directo sobre algunos indicadores de la función, como la resistencia a la temperatura y al estrés térmico, la porosidad y la densidad de las vasijas (Rye, 1981;Rice, 1987).…”