Pottery, Pottery, Pottery!
By David H. Cox
Pottery is a valuable object to an archeologist. It tells so much about a dig site,
that’s why a lot of it is collected. Analyzing the type of pottery on a dig site can
help identify, who lived there, if they were trading with their neighbors and, all
importantly the dating of the Tall. But how is pottery made anyway?
To answer that question, some of the Andrews University Archeology
team went on a cultural tour and visited a modern pottery making site. Upon
arriving, the first place we were shown was the slurry station. This is where the
clods of sun-baked Jordanian clay soften for a while in water.
All Photos Taken by Dave Cox
Fig. 1 – The Mixing
Pond
June 14 & 15, 2009
The next place this slurry will go is a curing pond. This causes, settling and
evaporates the water from the potential clayish mixture into blocks. (Fig.2 –
below).
Fig. 2 – The Curing Pond
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When the clay is sun baked, the water evaporated and slightly wet, it goes inside
a building to be worked. It will cure for a whole year inside this building.
Fig. 3 – The Evaporating Pond - Fig. 4 - The Curing Building - After working the clay
initially, it is then ready to be fashioned into pottery. In the figure to the left a
worker pushes all the
of the clay.
air out
.
Fig. 5 (Abv) - Clay Worked.
Should air stay in the clay, the trapped air will explode in the kiln marring the
pot during the hardening process and will ruin the pot, as it is fired into dry,
rigid, pots. The pot is then discarded.
After the clay lot has been cured for a year, the workers use a clay compactor
machine, as below, to form the clay into round cylinders of about 18-20” high.
Fig. 6-Clay cylinders made from clay pushed
through a compactor.
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These cylinders are then given to the men who
form the clay into whatever they are making for the day. In figure 7 left abv, you
see several workers forming large potter’s wheel. It only takes from 1-5 minutes
to form the pot depending on the complexity of the pottery being made. Then
the pot is put into a precuring area where the pottery becomes green ware prior
to firing the pottery.
Fig. 8 – Stored Green Ware
Fig. 9 – The Kiln Fully Loaded
The final process is the firing or hardening process. The kiln is where drier
green ware pots are loaded almost ready for firing. The kiln is packed quite
tightly and the firing takes several days including the cooling down of the kiln,
so it can be unloaded. The fired pots are then stored into storage buildings
waiting shipping to Europe and other areas of the Middle East. Fig. 10 – Lft.
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Unless the peoples of ancient days made their own pottery, they had to trade
for it. The potter’s house at the Tel Jalul has yet to be discovered, if it exists at
all. If it does exist, it should be close to water. This is one reason pottery is so
important to archeologists trying to understand a Tel site.
Back at Tel Jalul, workers pick pieces out of a Tel pottery dump as below
(Fig. 11). The reason these pottery Sherds are picked out by pieces was the pots
were probably broken by the people using them and had to be discarded.
Fig. 11- John Heczko and Andy Arkusinski Collecting
Pottery Sherds from a Pottery Dump at Tall Jalul. Buckets are lined up in Fig. 12 Below.
Fig. 12 – Buckets of Pottery lined up (Lft)
The Tall eventually produced 53 buckets of pottery. These Sherds will be
washed then sent to the lab for sorting, matching and gluing back together.
Andrews University hopes there are enough pottery to enlarge their collection.
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