Calculating ceramic vessel volume: an assessment of methods

Antiquity ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (338) ◽  
pp. 1182-1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Christine Rodriguez ◽  
Christine A. Hastorf
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Plan View ◽  
Circular Form ◽  
Elliptical Shape ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Vessel Volume ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

Calculating the volume of ceramic vessels found whole or in fragments on archaeological sites is a key analytical endeavour that can have implications for economic and social activity, including storage and feasting. Established methods for estimating volumes are mostly based on the assumption that vessel shapes approximate to a circular form in plan-view. This new study shows that such an assumption may not be warranted and that methods that assume circularity produce less accurate volumetric estimates than approaches which accept that a less regular elliptical shape may be closer to reality. Statistical analysis allows the accuracy of the different methods to be compared and evaluated.

scholarly journals Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Studies: Buddy Calvin Jones Sites in East Texas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Red River ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The Many

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Buddy Calvin Jones of Longview, Texas, identified and investigated archaeological sites across many counties in East Texas. Many of those sites were ancestral Caddo sites occupied from as early as ca. A.D. 850 to the early 1800s, and in his work he obtained surface collections of ceramic sherds from sites as well as large sherd assemblages and ceramic vessels from excavations in habitation deposits and Caddo cemeteries. Jones published only a few papers on his investigations, but his expansive archaeological collections (accompanied by notes and documentation) were donated to the Gregg County Historical Museum in 2003, where they are available for study. Since that time, his various site specific collections of ancestral Caddo material culture remains have begun to be documented, along with more extensive analyses of excavations of Caddo sites in the Little Cypress Creek basin in Upshur County, Texas and along the Red River in Red River County, Texas. This article continues the analyses of the 100+ ancestral Caddo ceramic collections from sites in the Buddy Jones collection by focusing on several of the many previously unanalyzed sherd samples obtained from sites throughout much of East Texas. Jones did not publish analyses of any of these collections in his lifetime.

Aquatic Radiocarbon Reservoir Offsets in the Southeastern Baltic

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gytis Piličiauskas ◽  
Carl Heron
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Curonian Lagoon ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Pike Perch ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ams Dates

The aim of this article is to discuss radiocarbon dating offsets due to freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE and MRE, respectively) in the southeastern Baltic. Thirty-six 14C dates from Lithuanian coastal and inland Subneolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age sites as well as two Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries are presented here. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates, sometimes paired or tripled, have been obtained on samples of various origin, foodcrusts, or visible charred deposits adhering to the surfaces of ceramic vessel walls were also dated and investigated for stable isotope signals. The results argue for a significant freshwater component in the food processed in ceramic vessels during the Subneolithic and Neolithic. Paired dating of ungulate and human bones at the Spiginas and Donkalnis cemeteries (6300–1900 cal BC) does not suggest an FRE, although stable isotope data on human bone collagen strongly suggest a large input of freshwater food in the diet. An FRE in the order of 320–510 yr was estimated for the Šventoji paleolagoon around 3000 cal BC. At the same time, the FRE of the Curonian Lagoon could be larger as implied by large apparent 14C ages of modern pike-perch (981 ± 30 BP) and bream (738 ± 30 BP) bones as well as “foodcrust” offsets (650–530 yr) at Nida (3500–2500 cal BC). An MRE of 190 ± 43 yr was estimated for the southeastern coast of the Littorina Sea according to offsets between dates of seal bones and terrestrial samples at Nida and Šventoji. Any FRE at Lake Kretuonas remains uncertain due to the limited work to date.

scholarly journals ON THE HANDLES OF CERAMIC VESSELS OF THE EARLY BRONZE PRIMORSKY DAGESTAN (QUESTIONS OF TYPOLOGY AND CHRONOLOGY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-114
Author(s):  
Arsen L. Budaychiev
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ceramic Ware ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Type 3

The main purpose of this article is a typological and chronological study of the handles of ceramic vessels originating from fairly well-studied sites of the Early Bronze Age of the Primorsky Lowland of Dagestan, including both settlements (Velikent II, Gemetyube I, II, Kabaz-Kutan I, II, Torpakh-kala), and and burial grounds (Velikent I (catacomb No. 8), II (catacomb No. 1), III (catacomb No. 1), Karabudakhkent II, Kayakent VI). The first handles in the North-Eastern Caucasus appeared on ceramic ware back in the Eneolithic era. During the early Bronze Age, handles became a characteristic part of ceramic dishes (bowls, containers, cups, vases) on the considered sites of Primorsky Dagestan. Functionally, they have a utilitarian, decorative, artistic and religious purpose. The handles are of four types, which are characteristic of certain forms of dishes: type 1 - horizontal tubular, type 2 - ribbon, type 3 - pseudo-handles, type 4 - hemispherical. The article provides a description of each type of pens, provides analogues on the sites of the Early Bronze Age both in the Northeast Caucasus and the adjacent regions of the Caucasus, including the territories of modern Iran, Turkey and Palestine and Israel, which were part of the distribution area of ​​the Kuro-Arak cultural and historical community ( including Khirbet-Kerak culture). The work identifies the most common and early, dating back to the Chalcolithic period, types of pens, discusses the issue of their chronology. This article is the first special work devoted to a typological and chronological analysis of ceramic vessel handles.

scholarly journals Analysis of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from Sites in Anderson and Cherokee Counties, Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The University ◽  
General Collection

In this article, I document 28 ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels from seven sites and one general collection in the whole vessel collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). These sites and general collection are in Anderson and Cherokee counties in East Texas (Figure 1), specifically the: Rube Beard site (41AN18, n=2), the Edward W. Ellis site (41AN36, n=1), the Ray Lookabaugh site (41AN37, n=1), the R. E. Daly site (41AN39, n=9), the Jasper Tucker/Mrs. Joe Watkins Farm site (41AN44, n=11; see also Perttula and Selden [2015]), the W. T. Todd site (41AN52, n=1), the N. B. Ruggles site (41CE40, n=2), and one vessel from the Cherokee County general collections. The methods of ceramic vessel analysis follow those specified in Perttula (2018:2-4), among other publications on Caddo ceramic vessel documentation, methods consistently employed since the 1990s in the documentation of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in East Texas sites.

Ceramic Vessels, Site Permanence, and Group Size: A Mississippian Example

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Vessel Size ◽  
Size And Shape ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Georgia Piedmont ◽  
Site Variability

Data derived from analyses of vessel size and shape have been largely overlooked by researchers who seek to understand Mississippian site variability. Vessel form data are analyzed to demonstrate that relative site permanence and the relative size of group that lived at or visited sites are reflected in the size and shape of ceramic vessels. Vessel forms from four archaeological sites are compared, each of which played a different role within a single, late Mississippian society of the Georgia Piedmont.

scholarly journals A Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Collection from a Site in the Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
The State ◽  
River Valley ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Brazos River ◽  
Baylor University ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
A Site ◽  
Neches River

Frank H. Watt (1889-1981) was a well-known and well-respected avocational archaeologist that lived in the Waco, Texas, area and studied the archaeology of the central Brazos River valley. He made forays into other parts of the state, however, including the Caddo archaeological area of East Texas. At an unknown date, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, Watt investigated an ancestral Caddo site on the Dennis Farm six miles northwest of the community of Neches, in the upper Neches River basin (probably in the Walnut Creek valley), in Anderson County. He collected 42 sherds from Caddo ceramic vessels from the site, and these collections are in the holdings of the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor University.

scholarly journals Frankston Phase Ceramics from the Alcoa #1 (41AN87) Site, Mound Prairie Creek, Anderson County, Texas

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Ceramic Assemblage ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Texas Department ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ceramic Sherd ◽  
The University ◽  
Neches River

In 1990, Amick investigated a well-preserved Late Caddo Frankston phase midden deposit at the ALCOA #1 (41AN87) site on Mound Prairie Creek, about 7 km northeast of Palestine, Texas. During the course of that work, more than 900 Caddo ceramic vessel sherds and a few pipe sherds were recovered, but they were only cursorily described by Amick. That was unfortunate at the time because it appeared then, and is still evident now, that the ALCOA #I site was a single component 15th century A.D. Frankston phase settlement, and detailed study of the recovered ceramic assemblage would have provided unique insights into the stylistic and technological character of the ceramic vessels being made and used for culinary purposes by the prehistoric Caddo in this part of the Neches River basin. With the renewed study of the archaeology of the Frankston phase occasioned by the Texas Department of Transportation-sponsored excavations at the Lang Pasture site (41AN38) and the recovery there of a substantial ceramic sherd assemblage-and the reexamination of sherd and vessel collections from Frankston phase collections at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, I returned to the detailed study of the ALCOA # 1 ceramic assemblage. The assemblage of ceramic vessel sherds from the Amick work is sufficiently robust that it is possible to characterize with some precision the use of fine wares, utility wares, and plain wares by the 15th century A.D. Caddo that lived at the site.

scholarly journals The Analysis of an Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessel from 41NA16 in Nacogdoches County in East Texas

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Perttula
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels

Included in the ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) whole vessel collection is one vessel from a reported site in the Attoyac Bayou basin: 41NA16 (H. G. Moore) in Nacogdoches County in East Texas. The Attoyac Bayou is a major southward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River. The vessel is fully documented in this article.

CHICKEN OR EGG? RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SILVER AND TINNED CERAMIC VESSEL ASSEMBLAGES

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 75-118
Author(s):  
S. Aulsebrook
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Strong Connection ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Metal Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

Since the 1960s, when the existence of tinned ceramic vessels in the Late Bronze Age Aegean was first recognised, our knowledge of this phenomenon and the catalogue of known examples have expanded significantly. Even before the nature of these objects was fully understood, scholars had suggested that their primary purpose was to imitate metal, particularly silver, vessels. Several silver vessel assemblages, including one from the tholos at Kokla, have been singled out for their perceived special relationship with tinned ceramics. However, closer analysis of tinned vessels has suggested that they were less similar to silver vessels than previously thought, especially in terms of their range of forms, details of shape and even colour. Recent scholarship has also emphasised that the concept of imitation is very complex and its investigation requires a more nuanced approach. Yet references to tinned vessels as straightforward imitations of, or even substitutes for, silver vessels remain common. In 2014, an opportunity arose to examine the Kokla silver vessels in greater detail. A strong connection between the Kokla group and tinned vessels is evident, although this does not mean that the latter depended upon assemblages such as the former for inspiration. The unique features of the Kokla group suggest it may have been a local innovation to emulate the usage of tinned vessels while simultaneously stressing the higher social status of its users. This paper concludes that situating tinned vessels within the ceramic tradition and thus regarding them as an enhanced form of ceramic, rather than an inferior form of metal vessel, better explains the nature of this phenomenon.

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