On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, George L. Miller wrote:

>The color that copper fires to is depend on whether or not is in an oxidizing or
>reducing atmosphere.  I have seen burnt green shell edge sherds that have
>partially turned red.  Clearly, not all green shell edged sherds will turn red
>when burned, but if they are in the right environment, they will oxidize to a
>different color.

Seems to me that a little experimental archaeology is in order here
(finally, something to do with all those green shell edge sherds
languishing in General Surface Collections).  The main question to be
answered as I see it is whether or not there is a degree of burning to
which a sherd can be exposed which will change the color from green to red
without being otherwise noticeably affected byt the burning.  I would
suspect no, else you'd think red shell edge sherds would be more common
than they are, but an interesting possibility.

Dan Marcel
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