Ethnoarchaeological Study On Traditional Pottery-making Industry

The information contained by pottery is not self-evident,and the intangible information is more obscure.It is necessary to use ethnoarchaeological method to interpret the cultural information of ancient pottery.On the guidance of ethnoarchaeology with new archaeological style,this paper makes a high resolution observation of the traditional pottery-making industry in China.By finding out the content of traditional pottery-making industry,and identifying the distinguishable remains left by related behavior,the paper intents to establish the relationship between human action and material remains,so that it can be usesd to verify archaeological hypothesis.After the typological research of 36 traditional pottery-making place,it is found that they can be divided into 5 types by the criteria of molding and firing method.The order is like this:1.Kneading molding,flat open-air firing ?2.Clay piece molding/model molding/clay strip building method without wheels,flat bank up fire firing?3.clay strip building method with wheels,one-time mud shell kiln?4.clay strip building then casting molding,no top kiln?5.Casting molding,kiln.It can be seen that casting molding is directly developed from the clay strip building method.However,it is only the general sequence of the development of pottery-making.Actually,there are also transitional type,subtype and allotype.Then this paper deconstructs the traditional pottery-making industry into 7 parts by cultural factors analysis method,and teases out the development logic of this cultural element and its corresponding relationship with the development of pottery-making industry.By observing the material characteristics left by corresponding behaviors of that part,this paper summarizes some specific enlightenment to ancient pottery-making study.1.Pottery clay selecting and processing.Different pottery-making industry has different pottery clay selecting and processing methods,which reflected in pottery,clay processing tools,borrow pits and mud pits.It is necessary to collect all these evidence comprehensively in archaeological practice.2.Molding technology.The existing molding technology includes kneading molding,clay piece molding,model molding,clay strip building,clay strip building then casting molding and casting molding,etc.Different molding technology is embodied in pottery-making tool and pottery itself,among them some information is indicative which should be emphasized.3.Decorating technology.Many decorative patterns of traditional pottery-making industry are based on practical needs.As for the most common printed decorations on potteries of the Neolithic Age,archaeologist should analysis whether they are traces of manufacturing or decorative patterns.4.Firing technology.Firing is a fundamental transformation of objective material by human actions,which is easy to recognize.According to kilns and unearthed potteries,we can roughly infer the firing technology at that time.5.Pottery-making place.There are collecting clay place,clay storage place,molding place and firing place,most of these are close to house,and some place may overlap.In pottery-making household,the molding place and firing place often scatter in different place,while in pottery workshop,they are usually in one place.6.Using method.According to ethnology materials,initially,pottery was used as cooking vessels.After that,the traditional pottery-making industry developed from "one pottery multiple usage" to "one usage multiple potteries”.7.Exchanging and distributing method.There are four forms including gifting,bartering,market exchanging and mandatory redistributing,and they can coexist.In archaeological practice,it is necessary to combine clues like distribution of potteries and the presence or absence of pottery market to infer the exchanging and distributing method.The second stage of pottery research is to discuss pottery production organization form.It is found that there are there levels of social division of labor?including division between different villages,different families and different genders.As for the production organization form in pottery-making industry,generally,the order is like this:1.As sideline of the female or male,farmers only making pottery in their spare time,while the main household economic source depends on agriculture?2.The male makes pottery full-time,while the main household economic source depends on agriculture ? 3.The household make pottery full-time,and don't farm any longer,while the main household economic source depends on agriculture ? 4.Different pottery producers make pottery collectively in pottery workshop.From the third stage,the pottery industry is separated from agriculture,and become specialized.In fact,different pottery production organization form can coexist,and even develop in reverse.The material traces of different pottery production organization form are different,among them some key information like casting,kiln,standardization,scale should be emphasized.The third stage of pottery research is "studying people through material",and analysing the status of those people of pottery-making industry.The research mainly includes 3 aspects:how to identify pottery producers,the inheritance of pottery producers and the migration of pottery producers,so as to provide some new ideas for ancient pottery research.This paper,on one hand,promotes a systematic understanding of traditional pottery-making industry,on the other hand,puts forward some specific enlightenment to ancient pottery-making study based on the relationship between material traces and human behavior of pottery-making industry.Some of these enlightenment have been verified by archaeological hypothesis,which opens up a new path for pottery research.