New meaning in old markings: reading pottery and finding foodways

Abstract

Everyone who works with pottery has sat with a fresh assemblage, table covered with innumerable sherds of varying colors and shapes and states of preservation, and wondered how on earth to make sense of it all. The terror we experience is fl eeting but palpable and dissipates the longer we examine our wares. We lump and split our material, trying to de fi ne our fabrics, identify our forms, and scrutinize our evidence to learn what it will tell us. We sit with the tools of our trade: a battered Munsell color chart, a loupe, or perhaps a USB microscope, and ask ourselves questions: When was this pot made? Was it made locally? If imported, how did it get here? Where was it found, and how can it date its layer? Do the dark marks on the vessel ’ s exterior mean it was used for cooking? Is this open form a service vessel? It is these questions that the bulk of pottery reports address.