On 2/17/03 4:26 PM, "Jessica White" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I was just curious about the previously mentioned "tongue" test. What does it
> tell you about stoneware versus earthenware?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Jessica
>
>
Hi Jessica!
The earthenware is porous, stoneware is vitrified and thus non-porous.
Stoneware is similar to porcelain in this manner. If you take a clean and
dry broken ceramic fragment and touch it to your tongue, an earthenware
sherd will absorb water from your tongue. While pulling water from the skin
of your tongue, the sherd actually pulls tiny bits of your skin into the
voids in the ceramic fabric. Thus it feels "sticky" to you. Stoneware and
porcelain, on the other hand, will feel slippery and not sticky.
The test works great. There remains a small chance each time you do this,
however, that your body will absorb something bad from the sherd. For
example, innocent sherd sitting in a farm field may be contaminated with
Giardia from animal fecal matter. In a more sinister case, absorbent sherds
suck up heavy metals, such as mercury, from anthropogenic soils.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I've contracted small sicknesses such
as Giardia and very significant illnesses including Valley Fever (fungus
Coccidioides immitis) from soil borne sources while doing archaeology. I
don't mean to be funny on this subject. This is very important.
Tim Scarlett
*******************************************************************
Timothy James Scarlett
Assistant Professor of Archaeology
Program in Industrial History and Archaeology
Department of Social Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295 USA
Tel (906) 487-2113 Fax (906) 487-2468 Internet [log in to unmask]
MTU Website: http://www.industrialarchaeology.net
SHA Website: http://www.sha.org SIA Website: http://www.sia-web.org
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"[My daughter] is in her why year this year. Everything with her is why. I
am in myself in my second whyhood." -- Woodie Guthrie, March 14, 1946.
In a letter to the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress.
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