Cord-marked pottery
Cord-marked pottery or Cordmarked pottery is an early form of a simple earthenware pottery. It allowed food to be stored and cooked over fire. Cord-marked pottery varied slightly around the world, depending upon the clay and raw materials that were available. It generally coincided with cultures moving to an agrarian and more settled lifestyle, like that of the
Making cord-marked pottery
Pottery was made by gathering clay from hillsides or streams. Other material—shells, stone, sand, plant fibers, crushed fired clay—added to the clay tempers it to prevent cracking and shrinking when dried and fired.[2] Several methods were used to create the rough shape of the vessel: pinching and shaping, paddling, or coiling, the latter of which means to build up a pot with coils of rolled clay. Layers of coiled clay are then pinched, thinned, and smoothed. Another method, paddling, is accomplished by pounding a lump of clay with a wooden paddle against a large stone. The fabric texture may appear on the side of the pottery if the paddle was covered with fabric. Otherwise, the pot could be created by shaping and pinching a lump of clay.[2]
Cord-marked pottery was then made with a paddle and anvil method that was accomplished by pressing cord-wrapped paddles against the side of the pottery to form and thin the pottery. This was done while holding an anvil stone on the inside of the vessel. The fiber cords prevented the paddles from sticking to the wet clay. This created small, parallel ridges in the pottery.[1] Pottery was then dried for two weeks and fired.[2]
The rough surface that was created made it easy to hold on to the vessels, particularly when wet or greasy. The rough surface also allowed "more effective transfer of heat (energy) from a cooking fire to the contents of the pot compared to a vessel with a smooth exterior."[1]
Mostly three types of impressions are obtained by using (1) single strand cord, (2) double strands twisted cord and (3) knots of thick cord in Maipur. The cords are wrapped around a paddle in case of the first two types, while the paddle is covered with a net made by tying knots in series of thick cord in the case of the third type.[3]
Asia
In Japan, the
North America
In North America, cord-marked pottery is believed to have originated in the Eastern United States prior to 1000 BC and was found in the upper Midwestern United States about 500 BC. Over the next 500 years, pottery-making cultures spread west, south, and northwest into the Great Plains, west of the Mississippi, and into Texas and Oklahoma.[1]
Cord-marked pottery was made in several shapes. An inverted cone shape, with a pointed bottom and up to 2 1/2 feet tall, was used for storing food. The walls of the pottery were very thick, and were too heavy to haul food a great distance. This would have been a great improvement over storing food directly underground without a container. Over time, the pottery walls became thinner and rounder as pottery-makers became more skilled, such as during the
Native groups of people created their own styles, based upon the raw materials that they used or the decorations that they added to the pottery. Some used crushed volcanic stone to temper the clay pottery. Decorations were made with punctuations, impressions, and incised lines.[1] During the Luray phase of prehistoric West Virginia shells were used to temper Keyser Cord-marked pottery.
Cord-marked pottery was made in the plains between the early centuries AD and through to the 1700s.
Gallery
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Savannah cord marked bowl, St. Catherines Period, AD 800–1300, Fernbank Museum of Natural History
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References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Villagers > Making Cordmarked Pottery". texasbeyondhistory.net. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Prehistoric Pottery - The Office of the State Archaeologist". archaeology.uiowa.edu. Archived from the original on May 25, 2021. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
- ^ a b Hazarika, Manjil (2013). "Cord-impressed Pottery in Neolithic-Chalcolithic Context of Eastern India". Neolithic-Chalcolithic Cultures of Eastern India. Indian Archaeological Society: 79–105. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
- ^ "Jomon Pottery". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
- doi:10.1002/jrs.2813.
- ^ "Wilmington Cord Marked - Guide to Native American Pottery of South Carolina". www.scpottery.com. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
- ^ Picture Canyon. Santa Fe Trails Scenic and Historic Byway. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
- ^ Burgh, Robert. "White Rock Cord-Marked Pottery". Plains2020.