Temper and temperament of prehistoric craft: Temper type evolution and clay body 'workability' | Intellect Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Craft Research
  4. Volume 10, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2040-4689
  • E-ISSN: 2040-4697

Abstract

Abstract

Temper is an additive incorporated into clay during the formation of a ceramic vessel, and may consist of various materials. In a number of previous experiments over the past several decades, archaeologists have experimentally demonstrated that tempers used by prehistoric craftspeople would have imparted important post-firing use-life properties to ceramic vessels. However, although widely touted, the notion that prehistoric temper types would have aided in pre-firing vessel formation has never been systematically tested. Here, we experimentally assess whether calcium carbonate-based tempers, like limestone and burnt shell, would have made clay bodies more workable relative to silicate-based grit temper, as has been previously proposed. In this study, participants were asked to build five simple and challenging three-dimensional forms using grit-, limestone- and shell-tempered clay bodies, and then rank these conditions in terms of workability. Our statistical and qualitative assessments of these data were unambiguous: contrary to claims in the scientific literature, the calcium carbonate tempers did not make clay bodies more workable, and were consistently, sometimes significantly, ranked lower than silicate grit-tempered clay bodies in terms of workability. Our results have several implications for temper selection and evolution in prehistory, specifically during the widespread silicate grit to calcium carbonate transition during the Late Woodland period (AD 500–1400) of the North American Midwest.

© Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/crre_00004_1
2019-09-01
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bebber, M.. (2016);, 'Understanding temper selection in the prehistoric ceramic sequence of the Scioto River Valley, Ross County, Ohio (500 bc-ad 1400)'. , unpublished MA thesis, Kent:: Department of Anthropology, Kent State University;.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bebber, M.. (2017);, 'Tempered strength: A controlled experiment assessing opportunity costs of adding temper to clay'. , Journal of Archaeological Science, 86, pp. 1-13.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bebber, M.,, Spurlock, L., and Fisch, M.. (2018);, 'A performance-based evaluation of chemically similar (carbonate) tempers from Late Prehistoric (ad 1200-1700) Ohio: Implications for human selection and production of ceramic technology'. , PloS One, 13:3, pp. 1-12.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bentley, R., and O'Brien, M.. (2011);, 'The selectivity of social learning and the tempo of cultural evolution'. , Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 9:2, pp. 125-41.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bronitsky, G., and Hamer, R.. (1986);, 'Experiments in ceramic technology: The effects of various tempering materials on impact and thermal-shock resistance'. , American Antiquity, 51:1, pp. 89-101.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Cochrane, E.. (2002);, 'Explaining the prehistory of ceramic technology on Waya Island, Fiji'. , Archaeology in Oceania, 37:1, pp. 37-50.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Cochrane, E., and Neff, H.. (2006);, 'Investigating compositional diversity among Fijian ceramics with laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS): Implications for interaction studies on geologically similar islands'. , Journal of Archaeological Science, 33:3, pp. 378-90.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Feathers, J.. (1989);, 'Effects of temper on strength of ceramics: Response to Bronitsky and Hamer'. , American Antiquity, 54:3, pp. 579-88.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Feathers, J.. (2006);, 'Explaining shell-tempered pottery in prehistoric Eastern North America'. , Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 13:2, pp. 89-133.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Feathers, J., and Scott, W.. (1989);, 'Prehistoric ceramic composite from the Mississippi Valley'. , Ceramic Bulletin, 68:3, pp. 554-57.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Field, A.. (2013), Discovering Statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics, Thousand Oaks:: Sage Publications;.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Grayson, J.. (2018);, 'South Staffordshire enamel – how…did they make that? The value of contemporary craftsmenship in revealing (absent) 18th century metalworking skills in literary sources'. , Making Futures, 5, pp. 1-15.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Griffin, J.. (1937);, 'The chronological position and ethnological relationships of the Fort Ancient aspect'. , American Antiquity, 2:4, pp. 273-76.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Griffin, J.. (1943), The Fort Ancient Aspect: Its Cultural and Chronological Position in Mississippi Valley Archaeology, Ann Arbor:: University of Michigan Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Hoard, R.,, O'Brien, M.,, Khorasgany, M., and Gopalaratnam, V.. (1995);, 'A materials-science approach to understanding limestone-tempered pottery from the Midwestern United States'. , Journal of Archaeological Science, 22, pp. 823-32.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Jeffra, C.. (2015);, 'Experimental approaches to archaeological ceramics: Unifying disparate methodologies with the chaîne opératoire'. , Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 7:1, pp. 141-49.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Kilikoglou, V.,, Vekinis, G., and Maniatis, Y.. (1995);, 'Toughening of ceramic earthenwares by quartz inclusions: An ancient art revisited'. , Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 43:8, pp. 2959-65.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Kilikoglou, V.,, Vekinis, G.,, Maniatis, Y., and Day, P. M.. (1998);, 'Mechanical performance of quartz-tempered ceramics: Part I, strength and toughness'. , Archaeometry, 40:2, pp. 261-79.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Lycett, S.. (2015);, 'Cultural evolutionary approaches to artifact variation over time and space: Basis, progress, and prospects'. , Journal of Archaeological Science, 56, pp. 21-31.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. McKern, W.. (1939);, 'The Midwestern taxonomic method as an aid to archaeological culture study'. , American Antiquity, 4:4, pp. 301-13.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Mesoudi, A.. (2011), Cultural Evolution, Chicago:: University of Chicago Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Mesoudi, A., and O'Brien, M.. (2009);, 'Placing archaeology within a unified science of cultural evolution'. , in S. Shennan. (ed.), Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution, Berkeley:: University of California Press;, pp. 21-32.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. O'Brien, M.,, Holland, T.,, Hoard, R., and Fox, G.. (1994);, 'Evolutionary implications of design and performance characteristics of prehistoric pottery'. , Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 1:3, pp. 259-304.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. O'Brien, M., and Shennan, S.. (eds) (2010), Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology, Cambridge:: MIT Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Prufer, O., and Andors, E.. (1967);, 'The Morrison Village site: A terminal prehistoric site in Ross County, Ohio'. , in O. Prufer, and D. McKenzie. (eds), Studies in Ohio Archaeology, Cleveland:: The Press of Western Reserve University;, pp. 187-229.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Prufer, O., and McKenzie, D.. (1966);, 'Peters Cave: Two woodland occupations in Ross county, Ohio'. , The Ohio Journal of Science, 66:3, pp. 233-53.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Prufer, O., and Shane., O.. (1970), Blain Village and the Fort Ancient Tradition in Ohio, Kent:: Kent State University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Reedy, C.. (2008), Thin-Section Petrography of Stone and Cultural Materials, London:: Archetype Publications Ltd;.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Rice, P.. (2015), Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, Chicago:: University of Chicago Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Rutkoski, A.,, Bebber, M., and Eren, M.. (2018);, 'Invention or diffusion: On the appearance of limestone temper in the late Holocene archeological record of southern Ohio, USA'. , Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11:6, pp. 2771-79.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Rye, O.. (1976);, 'Keeping your temper under control: Materials and the manufacture of Papuan pottery'. , Archaeology in Oceania, 11:2, pp. 106-37.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Schiffer, M.,, Skibo, J.,, Boelke, T.,, Neupert, M., and Aronson, M.. (1994);, 'New perspectives on experimental archaeology: Surface treatments and thermal response of the clay cooking pot'. , American Antiquity, 59:2, pp. 197-217.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Schillinger, K.,, Mesoudi, A., and Lycett, S.. (2014);, 'Considering the role of time budgets on copy-error rates in material culture traditions: An experimental assessment'. , PLoS One, 9:5, pp. 1-10.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Schillinger, K.,, Mesoudi, A., and Lycett, S.. (2015);, 'The impact of imitative versus emulative learning mechanisms on artifactual variation: Implications for the evolution of material culture'. , Evolution and Human Behavior, 36:6, pp. 446-55.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Schillinger, K.,, Mesoudi, A., and Lycett, S.. (2017);, 'Differences in manufacturing traditions and assemblage-level patterns: The origins of cultural differences in archaeological data'. , Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 24:2, pp. 640-58.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Shepard, A.. (1956), Ceramics for the Archaeologist, Ann Arbor:: Braun-Brumfield Inc;.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Skibo, J.,, Schiffer, M., and Reid, K.. (1989);, 'Organic-tempered pottery: An experimental study'. , American Antiquity, 54:1, pp. 122-46.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Trigger, B.. (2006), A History of Archaeological Thought, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Ullman, K.. (1983);, 'An analysis of ceramics from the Kramer Village Site (Ro33) Ross County, Ohio'. , unpublished MA thesis, Kent:: Kent State University;.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. West, S.. (1992);, 'Temper, thermal shock and cooking pots: A study of tempering materials and their physical significance in prehistoric and traditional cooking pottery'. , unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Tucson:: University of Arizona;.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Xue, L.. (2009);, 'The investigation into the development of glass as an expressive medium in China through direct contact with Western methods of making, decoration and forming'. , Ph.D. thesis, Wolverhampton:: University of Wolverhampton;.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Yoshioko, S., and Kitano, Y.. (1985);, 'Transformation of aragonite to calcite through heating'. , Geochemical Journal, 19:4, pp. 245-49.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Bebber, M. R., and Eren, M. I.. (2019);, 'Temper and temperament of prehistoric craft: Temper type evolution and clay body "workability"'. , Craft Research, 10:2, pp. 237-59, doi: 10.1386/crre_00004_1
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/crre_00004_1
Loading
Temper and temperament of prehistoric craft: Temper type evolution and clay body 'workability'
Craft Research 10, 237 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1386/crre_00004_1
/content/journals/10.1386/crre_00004_1
/content/journals/10.1386/crre_00004_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error