Bob,
Since this thread started over historic pottery on the East coast, I would
say our discussion is getting too much play. Out here in the Far Southwest,
historic (and prehistoric) native people mined residual clay from
decomposing granite in the Southern California Batholith. At the "B" Horizon where
the granite turns into decomposed granite, both iron-rich clay and sheets
of muscovite mica can be found. Most of the mica is silvery color, but in
some cases the iron stains it a golden yellow. Gabroic rocks create the
biotite mica, which is black. Most of the Tizon Brown Ware pottery lacks mica,
which is why pieces rich in muscovite mica are of interest out here. Mind
you, I am not generalizing about Connecticut or New Mexico or even the Lower
Colorado River. Your humorous comments about "Baby Bear's porridge" aside,
there is reason to hypothesize that some potters went out of their way to
either obtain mica-rich residual clay or scrape the mica off decomposed
granite and add it to the mix to create a desired and traditional effect.Some
of the clay sources fell within traditional territories controlled by one
clan or another, making access to some clays more difficult. And if you wish
to believe that temper is the null hypothesis, be my guest.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
In a message dated 7/2/2009 2:45:34 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Ron,
As you say, the jury remains out on the question of "was mica added?" ...
however, it would be well for them (the ajudicators) to consider one
additional piece of evidence and logic before reaching a verdict. It is
generally much more difficult to find mica just laying around loose (I
wonder if the folks who propound these "mica added" hypotheses ever
thought
about where suitable mica could be acquired, and the efforts it would take
to clean and process it? Do they imagine it's just lying about in clean,
neat, concentrated piles just awaiting a native potter to come along and
scoop it for temper? When you find mica in the wild, it's always mixed
with
unsuitable contaminants that have to be hand-picked out ... then crushed
and
graded) than it is to find clays already containing varying quantities of
mica (some with too little mica, some with too much ... and some like Baby
Bear's porridge, just-right). Thus, it is almost always easier to find
clay
with the right amount of mica, or with too much, than it is to find
useable
mica to add to clays with too little. Also, it makes sense (from an
economy
of effort standpoint) that one would seek to acquire everything needed at
one location/excursion/effort, rather than two).
I've had a bit over 30-years experience in making (replicating)
earthernware
pottery of various types (mainly emulations of Caddoan ware ... some
Southwestern), so my next comments derive from my experience as a hands-on
potter, not as an archaeologist (nor a scientist tainted with the bias of
applying logic). Making pottery is kinda like the law of ownership we usta
respect in Texas (you know the old saying, "possession is 9/10ths of the
law"), the work in making native pottery is 90% completed in possessing
the
materials to get started (suitable clay and fuel).
I've found that there's always a range of clays available at any suitable
source ... some is too clayey ... some too silty/sandy ... little is just
right. Every potter, of course, seeks to collect that which is just-right,
but the prudent potter also collects some that he knows is both too far
one
way and the other. It's when the clay is worked-up into a batch that one
needs the off-center stuff ... adding a bit of the rich ... or lean ... as
the case may require, to get the perfect mix.
Of course all of that doesn't mean that a prudent potter would eschew
scarfing-up some nice, suitable piles of ready-made temper (mica, or
otherwise) s/he saw just lying about.
Best regards,
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron May" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Mica Temper?
Bob,
I studied southern California pottery for quite a few years and visited
collections in Arizona and central California to sort it out. My approach
is
not to bias the scientific study by applying Occam's Razor. I selected all
the rim sherds (about 1,200) from a collection of 12,000 sherds recovered
from about 300 sites surrounding a dry lake in the Colorado Desert. I then
applied the typology I published in 1978, which included both hypotheses
about natural or purposefully added mica temper. I published the result
in
2001
at the San Bernardino County Museum. Lacking studies of the clay sources
out in the desert, the jury is still out on which hypothesis is correct.
However, we do have crushed pottery and mineral material in some of the
types
that is not local to the area. The charts and graphs in the 2001 report
show the hard science. We did find specimens of mica tempered pottery a
long
way from residual clay sources, but this does not mean they added mica to
the clay. I try to keep an open mind, as my informants advise me that
mica
is
used to control heating vessels. Does this mean they walk farther for the
micaceous clay, I do not know. I consider myself one of those people who
have anguished over the use of temper additives and am a believer that
they
did hold true to formulas traditional to their families. I suggest you
review my data.
And by the way, I examined a sizable collection of Tizon Brown Ware from
Old Town San Diego recovered during street investigations in 1978. There is
no known local source of mica in that area, as the geology is uplifted
marine sediments. The sherds down there were thicker than the prehistoric
pottery and exhibited higher quantities of mica. What does this mean? It
means we
need to do more work.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
In a message dated 7/2/2009 9:56:29 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Ron,
I've never seen a documented case of a sherd/vessel with mica in the
fabric
occuring outside an area where mica occurs naturally in
available/suitable
pottery clays.
Logic (Occam's Razor), thus, would argue that the mica is most likely
naturally incidental to the clays being selected/used, and NOT added (as a
separate ingredient) to the paste.
I know a lot of people (archaeologists) have anguished over the use of
tempering additives for at least the past 50 or 60 years, in many
different
areas, trying to trick-out some useful cultural information (that's easier
to do in the Caddoan area, for example, where substances like ground
potsherds, crushed bone and shell, which are NOT natural inclusions in the
clays, were used) ... but the incidents of anyone being able to show
definitive evidence of additional tempering agents (especially so, when
these are among the set of those naturally occuring in the pottery clays
of
an area/region), are decidedly rare.
Bob Skiles
PS, IMO 95%+ of the ceramics that have been argued to have "mica
tempering"
are spurious arguments not based upon any actual objective evidence ... I
believe in almost all cases, the mica must have been naturally occurring
within the clay selected. BUT, that certainly DOES NOT mean the native
potters did not recognize the benefits of clays with the proper amounts of
temper (mica), and selected them based on that criterion.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron May" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2009 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Mica Temper?
So Jeffrey, Did the various New Mexico people track down natural clays
with
mica or add it as temper?
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc
In a message dated 7/2/2009 6:45:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
By the way, there is also a controversy among New Mexican archaeologists
as to whether the region's Hispanic occupants picked up micaceous pottery
manufacture. The best evidence, in my opinion, says "no" and that pottery
manufacture in Hispanic communities was the activity of Indians residing
in
those communities, primarily Apaches and Navajos, but that opinion is not
universally held.
Also, as regards Carl's note about micaceous pots, my grandmother always
said -- and I have heard many viejos nortenos say -- that frijoles
(beans)
are best cooked in micaceous pots.
Jeff
Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Project Director
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico
mail: P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
physical: 407 Galisteo Street, Suite B-100, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
tel: 505.827.6387 fax: 505.827.3904
e-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
--Ellen
Parr
________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of Megan Springate
Sent: Wed 7/1/2009 7:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Mica Temper?
Forwarded from the Ceramics-L list; I thought perhaps someone here might
have some thoughts. Please include Christian Gates on your reply
([log in to unmask])
--Megan Springate
---------------------------- Original Message
----------------------------
Subject: Mica Temper
From: "Christian Gates" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, July 1, 2009 9:26 am
To: [log in to unmask]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some colleagues from Montreal have found an assemblage of what seems to
be
Native American ceramics heavily tempered with mica: mica fragments are
large, numerous and nearly as important as the clay itself. The pottery
fragments are very hard and they break more like European ceramics than
Native American ceramics. The context is a French settlement from the
XVIIth Century.
Is anyone familiar with such pottery? Can anyone provide me with similar
examples of Native American or European ceramics heavily tempered with
mica?
Thank you
Christian Gates St-Pierre
Archaeologist, PhD
Ethnoscop inc.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Découvrez les photos les plus intéressantes du jour.
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