Assessing Techniques for the Estimation of Original Firing Temperatures of Plains Ceramics: Experimental and Archaeological Results

Abstract

Firing practices yield insights into the technological skill, knowledge, and behavior of potters. Skill and time, clays, fuels, and intended vessel use are significant for potters' decisions about heating rates, firing temperature and atmosphere. Firing is one stage in ceramic production that, when considered with the vessel's life history, reveals strategies of craftspersons and technological changes, or continuities across space and time. This paper explores methods for estimating firing temperatures. Experiments demonstrate that techniques used in other regions, such as stepwise clay oxidation analysis, are problematic for Plains ceramics and possibly other regions. A revised protocol is developed and paired with magnetic susceptibility to produce better estimates. Results indicate unexpected amounts of low-fired pottery (<500°C), with all temperatures below 750°C. Perhaps Plains Woodland and Northeastern Plains Village potters in North Dakota employed low-firing temperatures, in combination with less desirable, but available organic rich sediments, as a strategy to produce workable vessels.