Rio Grande Glaze Ware

Last updated
Agua Fria Glaze-on-red bowl Agua Fria Glaze-on-red bowl.png
Agua Fria Glaze-on-red bowl

Rio Grande Glaze Ware is a late prehistoric and historic pottery tradition of the Puebloan peoples of New Mexico. The tradition involved painting pots with black paint made with lead ore; as the pots were fired the black paint fused and sometimes ran. The tradition lasted from AD 1315 to 1700. Rio Grande Glaze Ware was made or used in a number of villages from the Santa Fe area to the north end of Elephant Butte Reservoir, and from the valley of the Rio Puerco east to the upper Pecos River Valley.

Contents

Archaeologists divide Rio Grande Glaze Ware into arbitrary types with much shorter life spans, primarily to help them date sites. Individual potsherds are assigned to types based on a combination of attributes, beginning with vessel rim profiles and proceeding to painted designs or vice versa.

Overview and cautions

Rio Grande Glaze Ware was first made about AD 1315 (based on tree-ring dating at Tijeras Pueblo). It partly displaced an earlier tradition of black-on-white pottery and was inspired by the White Mountain Red Ware tradition (Carlson 1970) centered on the upper Little Colorado drainage of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. The apparent ancestral type for Rio Grande Glaze Ware, Los Padillas Polychrome, was a local variant on a White Mountain Red Ware type, Heshotauthla Polychrome (Wilson 2005:43). Los Padillas is found at sites dominated by black-on-white decorated pottery (Mera 1935:33), a pattern predating the glazeware tradition, and Wilson (2005:43) dates Los Padillas from AD 1175 to 1300. Habicht-Mauche (1993, Table 2) dates it from AD 1300 to 1350, however. The type is sometimes called Los Padillas Glaze Polychrome.

Rio Grande Glaze Ware was fired in an oxygen rich atmosphere. The lead-based pigment yielded a black glazing paint despite the presence of oxygen, while iron-based, non-glazing pigment yielded a matte red paint. Red design elements were most often outlined in black. On most pots, background colors ranged from red to olive to yellow, achieved with clay slips containing iron. A white slip was sometimes achieved by using slip clay imported from the Acoma-Zuni region to the west.

Rio Grande Glaze Ware was no longer made after 1700, because the Spanish cut off Pueblo access to the lead ore used in making the glaze paint (Wilson 1995:10). The Pueblos continued to make polychrome pottery but used all matte paints (Harlow 1973), as they do today.

The ware was made in the Rio Grande Valley and adjacent valleys, from roughly Santa Fe south to the north end of Elephant Butte Reservoir, and from the Rio Puerco east and northeast to the upper Pecos River. Unlike Old World glazed pottery and its derivatives, Rio Grande Glaze Ware used the glaze material as part of a decorative scheme, never to coat and waterproof the entire vessel.

Spielmann (1998) argues that the new pottery was part of changing religious practices among the New Mexico Pueblos, and specifically that "large glaze ware bowls were used ... for communal feasting, with each household contributing to the feast. The smaller white ware bowls continued to function as vessels for domestic food consumption. During the fifteenth century, white ware bowls were replaced by a smaller form of the Rio Grande glaze ware bowl, and thus glaze ware bowls came to be used in both ceremonial feasting (large size bowl) and domestic food consumption (small size bowl)" (Spielmann 1998:258).

Archaeologists divide Rio Grande Glaze Ware into a number of types, primarily to estimate the age of a site (based on what pottery types were found there). In this article the first approach to the named types begins with rim profiles. It is followed by a breakdown that begins with paint styles. Both approaches can be useful in understanding why a specific piece of pottery was assigned to a specific type. What follows is not an exhaustive typology (those can be found in the references provided). Rather, it is just extensive enough to allow non-specialists to understand the existing named distinctions.

Approach based on rims

The most time-sensitive attribute of Rio Grande Glaze Ware pottery is the rim profiles of bowls, so most archaeologists sort potsherds beginning with the rims. In doing so they refer to Glaze A through Glaze F pottery, A rims being the earliest and F rims being the latest (Hawley 1950; Wilson 2005). This letter-based key was first developed by Harry Percival Mera (1933), drawing on an earlier, number-based key developed by Anna O. Shepard and Alfred V. Kidder (Kidder and Shepard 1936). Here, the first question is: what rim profile is present?

Glaze A

Profiles of Glaze A rims Rio grande a rims.GIF
Profiles of Glaze A rims

Glaze A bowl rims are in-curving and of a consistent thickness. The lips are rounded or squared. Glaze A is often dated from AD 1315 to 1425 (Wilson 2005:47), but the end date applies only from the Albuquerque area north. In the southern part of the range, bowls with Glaze A rims were made until AD 1500 or later (Franklin 2007).

Glaze A pottery was first made in the Albuquerque area (the earliest directly dated examples being from Tijeras Pueblo) and was dominated by red-slipped examples with black interior designs. The exteriors are sometimes painted with isolated elements such as crosses. Pottery of this description is classified as Agua Fria Glaze-on-red. In some of the earliest examples, however, simple white paint designs appear on the exterior; such pottery is classified as Arenal Glaze Polychrome (with crushed rock temper) or Los Padillas Polychrome (with sherd temper) (Wilson 2005:4748).

As Glaze A pottery spread north, yellow-slipped examples appeared and are known as Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow. Yellow-slipped pottery with red matte paint elements outlined in black glaze paint are known as Cieneguilla Glaze Polychrome (Wilson 2005:4950).

On some Glaze A pottery, the interior slip color differs from the exterior slip color (so that the background colors are different on each side of a potsherd). If the painted design was executed with black glaze paint, the type is known as San Clemente Glaze Polychrome. If the design also includes red matte paint elements (usually outlined in black), the type is known as Pottery Mound Polychrome (Wilson 2005:5152).

Although most Glaze A rims were quite simple, one contemporary variant has a slightly flaring rim (Honea 1966). Examples with one slip color are classified as Sanchez Glaze-on-red or Sanchez Glaze-on-yellow. Examples with contrasting white (interior) and red (exterior) slips, and with black glaze paint, are termed Sanchez Glaze Polychrome (Wilson 2005:5254).

Glaze B

Profile of Glaze B rim Rio grande b rim.GIF
Profile of Glaze B rim

Glaze B bowl rims are also incurving but become thicker towards the lips, which are flat. The resulting profile is somewhat wedge-shaped. Glaze B was made almost exclusively in the region north of Albuquerque; farther south, potters simply continued with the Glaze A rim style. Glaze B dates between AD 1400 and 1450 (Wilson 2005:55).

Glaze B vessels with one slip and black glaze paint are classified as Largo Glaze-on-yellow or Largo Glaze-on-red, the yellow-slipped type being more common. Examples with one slip, and red matte paint outlined in black, are classified as Largo Glaze Polychrome. In this type, the lower portions of bowl exteriors are often unslipped (Wilson 2005:5557).

Rarely, examples are found with two contrasting (interior versus exterior) slip colors and black glaze paint designs; these are termed Medio Glaze Polychrome.

Glaze C

Profile of Glaze C rim Rio grande c rim.GIF
Profile of Glaze C rim

Glaze C bowl rims have everted lips. Glaze C was made between AD 1425 and 1500. This rim group has one named type, Espinoso Glaze Polychrome, which includes red matte paint elements outlined in black glaze paint. The contrast between the red paint and the other colors give Espinoso pots a "gaudy" look. Jar necks are near-vertical and display red designs outlined in black. The bottom of vessel exteriors may be unslipped. In the Glaze C through E periods, vessel designs were almost exclusively polychrome (Wilson 2005:57).

Glaze D

Profiles of Glaze D rims Rio grande d rims.GIF
Profiles of Glaze D rims

Glaze D bowl rims date between AD 1470 and 1515. In profile, rim exteriors exhibit an inward bend (or close to it). The rims themselves are either fairly consistent in thickness, or taper slightly to both the body and the lip. This rim group has one named type, San Lazaro Glaze Polychrome, which includes red matte paint elements outlined in black glaze paint. Some examples lack the red matte paint but are also classified as San Lazaro. Bowl interiors and exteriors both have designs in panels or bands. The black paint is thin but non-runny (Wilson 2005:58).

Glaze E

Profiles of Glaze E rims. L-R: Pecos, Puaray, Escondido Rio grande e rims.GIF
Profiles of Glaze E rims. L-R: Pecos, Puaray, Escondido

Most Glaze E bowl rims are substantially thicker than the bodies of the bowls, and "breaks" (discontinuities) in the exterior curve of the bowl are common. After the Spanish colonized New Mexico in 1598, some glaze ware bowls took on distinctly European shapes, for example, soup plates. Glaze E black paint ran during firing. Glaze E was made from 1515 until 1700 (Wilson 2005:59).

Glaze E bowl rims fall into three named categories. Puaray Glaze Polychrome is characterized by thickened rim profiles reminiscent of willow leaves, above a marked break in the exterior profile. The designs included red matte paint elements outlined runny black (or off-black) glaze. When the rims are instead somewhat rectangular in profile, the type becomes Escondido Glaze Polychrome. In the Pecos Pueblo area, Glaze E rims are sometimes instead somewhat "stubby," meaning that the break is near the rim, and that the thickened portion of the rim is correspondingly short. This variant is known as Pecos Glaze Polychrome (McKenna and Miles 1996; Wilson 2005:5961).

Glaze F

Profile of Glaze F rim Rio grande f rim.GIF
Profile of Glaze F rim

"Glaze F ... exhibits a significant decline in the glaze and quality of workmanship" (Wilson 2005:62). Glaze F bowl rims retain a break in the exterior profile, but the marked thickening of Glaze E disappears. European-inspired shapes become more common. The glaze paint then in use usually fired to runny brown or green rather than black.

Glaze F vessels with one slip and "black" glaze paint are classified as Kotyiti Glaze-on-red or Kotyiti Glaze-on-yellow. Several design variants are subsumed by Kotyiti Glaze Polychrome. Some examples of that polychrome type have one slip color and red matte paint elements outlined in "black" glaze paint. Others have two slip colors and either "black" glaze paint examples or red-and-black paint examples (Wilson 2005:62).

Approach based on paint styles

Under the Mera system of classification, all types based on painting styles fit neatly as subtypes of the types based on rim forms. In practice, specific painting styles do not form neat subsets of groups defined on rim forms, particularly in the southern portion of the production range. Here, the first question is: does the painted design consist of black elements, or of red and black elements?

Black painted designs

The first examples of Rio Grande Glaze Ware carried on a centuries-old tradition of black painted designs on a lighter background. The next question is: was the slipped background (1) red, (2) yellow, or (3) contrasting colors, one on the inside of the vessel, the other on the outside?

Red slip backgrounds

Los Padillas Polychrome bowl Los Padillas Polychrome Bowl.gif
Los Padillas Polychrome bowl

Arenal Glaze Polychrome and Los Padillas Polychrome feature red-slipped bowls with simple interior designs painted in black glaze paint; the former has crushed rock temper while the latter has crushed sherd temper. The bowl exteriors include simple designs in white matte paint. The overall layout (black-on-red interiors, white-on-red exteriors) is a carryover from White Mountain Red Ware. Arenal dates from AD 1315 to 1350(?) and is found from Albuquerque souththe same area of its supposed ancestor, Los Padillas Polychrome.

Agua Fria Glaze-on-red lacks white paint on bowl exteriors, but is otherwise identical to Arenal. Agua Fria bowls are red-slipped. The black glaze paint is usually dull and non-runny. The black designs are usually laid out in bands on the upper part of bowl interiors. The upper exteriors sometimes have slashes, crosses, or similar isolated motifs. Jars with black-on-red exterior designs also occur. Agua Fria Glaze-on-red occurs throughout the Rio Grande Glaze Ware area. It dates from AD 1315 to 1425 throughout its range, and later (possibly as late as 1550) in the southern portion of its range. Honea (1966) describes a variant of Agua Fria Glaze-on-red with a slightly out-flaring rim, Sanchez Glaze-on-red. This type is found north of Albuquerque and dates from AD 1350 to 1425.

Kotyiti Glaze-on-red bowl Kotyiti Glaze Bowl.gif
Kotyiti Glaze-on-red bowl

When B rims rather than A rims are present, this type becomes Largo Glaze-on-red (AD 1400 to 1450). Afterwards, all-black painted designs appear to have given way to black-and-red painted designs until the Spanish Colonial period, when some vessels revert to this simpler design scheme. During the Spanish Colonial period, when F rims are present, this type becomes Kotyiti Glaze-on-Red (AD 1625 to 1700).

Yellow slip backgrounds

When the slip is more yellow than red, black-design vessels are called Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow. This style is found north of Albuquerque and may represent a local innovation as the making of glaze ware pottery spread northward. Cieneguilla dates from AD 1325 to 1425. In the Galisteo Basin, a variant of this type with a slightly flaring lip is known as Sanchez Glaze-on-yellow (Honea 1966) and dates from AD 1350 to 1425.

When B rims rather than A Rims are present, black-on-yellow bowls are classified as "Largo Glaze-on-yellow." This type dates from AD 1400 to 1450. Afterwards, all-black painted designs appear to have died out until the Spanish Colonial period, when some vessels revert to this simpler design scheme. During the Spanish Colonial period, when F rims are present, the named type is Kotyiti Glaze-on-yellow (AD 1625 to 1700).

Contrasting slip backgrounds

Early on, potters also learned to make some vessels with contrasting slipsone background color on the inside of the vessel, a different background color on the outside. The options included the red and yellow slip clays used on one-slip vessels, as well as white slip clay probably imported from the west.

San Clemente Glaze Polychrome dates from AD 1315 (?this is probably too early) to 1425. In this type, the interior and exterior of each bowl is slipped in a different color. (In jars, the uppermost and most easily reached part of the interior is slipped a different color.) The black glaze paint design applied over the slip often includes dots and serrated lines. San Clemente Polychrome occurs from Albuquerque south.

Honea (1966) has described a variant on San Clemente Glaze Polychrome, Sanchez Glaze Polychrome. The Sanchez variant has a "slightly out-flaring rim resembling Glaze C rims, but thicker" (Wilson 2005:54). This rare variant consists of bowls, which are found north of Albuquerque.

Late in the sequence, a variant appears in which black paint designs appear over contrasting interior and exterior slips, with Glaze F rims. This combination is called Kotyiti Glaze Polychrome, however, the same name is used for F rim examples with red-and-black painted designs (see below).

Red and black painted designs

Almost immediately, it seems, the Rio Grande area potters branched out from black-design tradition of White Mountain Red Ware, adding a scheme involving black and red paint designs on a lighter background. Where red (matte) paint was used, it was almost always outlined in black glaze paint. This specific artistic canon may have been inspired by Ramos Polychrome, a type of pottery made in northwest Chihuahua beginning about 1200. The next question is: was the slip background (1) a single color (which could vary), or (2) contrasting colors?

Single background colors

The use of red-and-black painted designs apparently began on vessels with yellow slips, but as time went on other slip colors were used. The probable first type in this tradition was Cieneguilla Glaze Polychrome, which differs from Cieneguilla Black-on-yellow by the addition of red (matte) paint elements outlined in black (glaze) paint. Cieneguilla Polychrome dates from AD 1325 to 1425. When B rims rather than A rims are present, this type becomes Largo Glaze Polychrome (AD 1400 to 1450).

When C rims are present, the type becomes Espinoso Glaze Polychrome (AD 1425 to 1500). By Espinoso, the slip tends to be off-white rather than yellow, causing the designs to appear more "gaudy." This background color may be in imitation of contemporary Acoma-Zuni wares. Espinoso Glaze Polychrome is most common north of Albuquerque.

When D rims are present, the type becomes San Lazaro Glaze Polychrome (AD 1470 to 1515). The background slip color reverted to a tan-reddish continuum. In some instances the red matte paint was not used, and strictly speaking those examples are glaze-on-red designs, not polychrome.

Puaray Glaze Polychrome jar neck and upper shoulder Puaray Glaze Polychrome.gif
Puaray Glaze Polychrome jar neck and upper shoulder

When E rims are present, the type becomes Puaray Glaze Polychrome (willow-leaf profiles; AD 1515 to 1650) or Escondido Glaze Polychrome (rectangular profiles; AD 1515 to 1650[?]). (Jars, such as the one shown, have different rims and are always classed as Puaray rather than as Escondido.) The background slip color ranges from an off-white to yellow or red. By this point the black glaze paint is "runny" (during firing), giving the finished vessels a sloppy look. It is not clear whether the runny look is deliberate (due to a change in the paint formula) or unavoidable (due to a change in the available raw minerals). In the area, a local variant, Pecos Glaze Polychrome, has "stubby" thickened rims; this variant dates from AD 1515 to 1700.

When F rims are present, the type becomes Kotyiti Glaze Polychrome (AD 1625 to 1700), however, the same type name is applied to F rim examples in the San Lazaro (two slip) tradition. Kotyiti Glaze Polychrome is characterized by slapdash designs and by the use of runny glaze black paint.

Contrasting background colors

Pottery Mound Glaze Polychrome Jar Sherd Pottery Mound Polychrome Jar Sherd.gif
Pottery Mound Glaze Polychrome Jar Sherd

Pottery Mound Polychrome is considered a variant of San Clemente Glaze Polychrome, in the sense that the San Clemente slip scheme (different slip color on interiors and exteriors) is combined with the canon of red matte paint outlined in black glaze paint. In some of the most boldly executed examples of this type, however red matte paint designs are sometimes not framed in black. The background colors used in contrasting pairs include red (grading to orange), yellow (grading to olive), and white (probably using slip clay from the Acoma area, in imitation of Acoma-Zuni wares). Pottery Mound Polychrome dates from AD 1400 to 1490. The sole center of production was Pottery Mound, a village on the lower Rio Puerco (east).

Eckert (2003, 2006) breaks this pottery into two types. She uses "Pottery Mound Polychrome" to describe A rim bowls slipped yellow to buff on the interior surface and red on the exterior surface, and dates the type from AD 1375 to 1450 or later. She uses "Hidden Mountain Polychrome" for A or C rim bowls are slipped red on the interior surface and white on the exterior surface, and dates the type from AD 1400 to 1450 or later. By her standards, the bowl sherd with a C rim shown here is Hidden Mountain Polychrome, not Pottery Mound Polychrome.

Tabular approach to classification

Pottery Mound Glaze Polychrome bowl sherd with C rim Pottery mound glaze polychrome bowl sherd with C rim.gif
Pottery Mound Glaze Polychrome bowl sherd with C rim

The Mera system, which first keys off rim profiles, is probably best suited to the northern portion of the glaze ware production areain other words, in the area Mera relied on to develop his system. One recently developed alternative approach, by Franklin (2007), reflects work in the southern portion of the glaze ware area, where the Mera system works less well. Franklin's system recognizes the cross-cutting nature of rim forms and painted designs in the Rio Grande Glaze Ware. In his system, therefore, a bowl with black glaze paint on a red slip background is classified "Agua Fria Glaze-on-red" regardless of rim form, and the rim forms (A, B, etc.) are separately recorded for the sherds thus classified. One advantage of this approach is its flexibility. In Wilson (2005), for example, Pottery Mound Polychrome is listed as a Glaze A type but at the production center, Pottery Mound, it occurs with other rim forms (Franklin 2007).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya ceramics</span>

Maya ceramics are ceramics produced in the Pre-Columbian Maya culture of Mesoamerica. The vessels used different colors, sizes, and had varied purposes. Vessels for the elite could be painted with very detailed scenes, while utilitarian vessels were undecorated or much simpler. Elite pottery, usually in the form of straight-sided beakers called "vases", used for drinking, was placed in burials, giving a number of survivals in good condition. Individual examples include the Princeton Vase and the Fenton Vase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terra sigillata</span>

Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of the Roman Empire; and more recently, as a description of a contemporary studio pottery technique supposedly inspired by ancient pottery. Usually roughly translated as 'sealed earth', the meaning of 'terra sigillata' is 'clay bearing little images', not 'clay with a sealed (impervious) surface'. The archaeological term is applied, however, to plain-surfaced pots as well as those decorated with figures in relief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lustreware</span> Pottery with a reflective or iridescent surface

Lustreware or lusterware is a type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic oxides in an overglaze finish, which is given a second firing at a lower temperature in a "muffle kiln", or a reduction kiln, excluding oxygen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swatow ware</span>

Swatow ware or Zhangzhou ware is a loose grouping of mainly late Ming dynasty Chinese export porcelain wares initially intended for the Southeast Asian market. The traditional name in the West arose because Swatow, or present-day Shantou, was the South Chinese port in Guangdong province from which the wares were thought to have been shipped. The many kilns were probably located all over the coastal region, but mostly near Zhangzhou, Pinghe County, Fujian, where several were excavated in the mid-1990s, which has clarified matters considerably.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ding ware</span>

Ding ware, Ting ware or Dingyao are Chinese ceramics, mostly porcelain, that were produced in the prefecture of Dingzhou in Hebei in northern China. The main kilns were at Jiancicun or Jianci in Quyang County. They were produced between the Tang and Yuan dynasties of imperial China, though their finest period was in the 11th century, under the Northern Song. The kilns "were in almost constant operation from the early eighth until the mid-fourteenth century."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oribe ware</span> Type of Japanese pottery

Oribe ware is a style of Japanese pottery that first appeared in the sixteenth century. It is a type of Japanese stoneware recognized by its freely-applied glaze as well as its dramatic visual departure from the more somber, monochrome shapes and vessels common in Raku ware of the time. The ceramics were often asymmetrical, embracing the eccentricity of randomized shapes. Deformed shapes were not at all uncommon. These shapes were achieved through the implementation of moulding as a technique, as opposed to working on a potter’s wheel. Sometimes, bowls were so deformed that they became difficult to use – whisking tea could even become a difficult task.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese ceramics</span> Pottery and porcelain from China

Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iznik pottery</span> Type of decorated ceramic

Iznik pottery, or Iznik ware, named after the town of İznik in western Anatolia where it was made, is a decorated ceramic that was produced from the last quarter of the 15th century until the end of the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levantine pottery</span> Pottery from the Levant

Pottery and ceramics have been produced in the Levant since prehistoric times.

<i>Sancai</i>

Sancai is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown, green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang dynasty (618–907) and its tomb figures, appearing around 700. Therefore, it is commonly referred to as Chinese: 唐三彩 Tang Sancai in Chinese. Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred in China and the West as egg-and-spinach by dealers, for their use of green, yellow, and white, especially when combined with a streaked effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pottery Mound</span>

Pottery Mound was a late prehistoric village on the bank of the Rio Puerco, west of Los Lunas, New Mexico. It was an adobe pueblo most likely occupied between 1350 and 1500. The site is best known for its 17 kivas, which yielded a large number of murals. A 2007 book, New Perspectives on Pottery Mound Pueblo provides a general introduction to the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rio Grande White Ware</span>

The Rio Grande white wares comprise multiple pottery traditions of the prehistoric Puebloan peoples of New Mexico. About AD 750, the beginning of the Pueblo I Era, after adhering to a different and widespread regional ceramic tradition for generations, potters of the Rio Grande region of New Mexico began developing distinctly local varieties of black-on-white pottery. This pottery involved the use of black mineral paint or black vegetal paint on a white, off-white, or light gray background. The black-on-white tradition finally died out about AD 1750.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roosevelt Red Ware</span>

Roosevelt Red Ware, also known as Salado Red Ware and Salado Polychrome, is a late prehistoric pottery tradition found across large portions of Arizona and New Mexico. The tradition involves the combination of red, white, and black paint in varying configurations along with compositional and morphological characteristics. This ceramic tradition begins about AD 1280-1290 and lasts until at least AD 1450 based on tree-ring dating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Roman pottery</span> Ceramic creations in ancient Rome

Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. Some of this pottery has been uncovered into the 21st century in the former territory of the Roman Empire, as well as in other parts of the world, especially in waste mounds such as Monte Testaccio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cizhou ware</span>

Cizhou ware or Tz'u-chou ware is a term for a wide range of Chinese ceramics from between the late Tang dynasty and the early Ming dynasty, but especially associated with the Northern Song to Yuan period in the 11–14th century. It has been increasingly realized that a very large number of sites in northern China produced these wares, and their decoration is very variable, but most characteristically uses black and white, in a variety of techniques. For this reason Cizhou-type is often preferred as a general term. All are stoneware in Western terms, and "high-fired" or porcelain in Chinese terms. They were less high-status than other types such as celadons and Jun ware, and are regarded as "popular", though many are finely and carefully decorated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redware</span> Various types of red-colored pottery

Redware as a single word is a term for at least two types of pottery of the last few centuries, in Europe and North America. Red ware as two words is a term used for pottery, mostly by archaeologists, found in a very wide range of places. However, these distinct usages are not always adhered to, especially when referring to the many different types of pre-colonial red wares in the Americas, which may be called "redware".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persian pottery</span> Pottery of Iran

Persian pottery or Iranian pottery is the pottery made by the artists of Persia (Iran) and its history goes back to early Neolithic Age. Agriculture gave rise to the baking of clay, and the making of utensils by the people of Iran. Through the centuries, Persian potters have responded to the demands and changes brought by political turmoil by adopting and refining newly introduced forms and blending them into their own culture. This innovative attitude has survived through time and influenced many other cultures around the world.

The basic chronology of the early town of Manda Island in the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya is divided into 6 different periods, based mostly on the types of imported pottery that has been found in different strata of the excavations. The first period, I, begins in the mid ninth century and is subdivided into four parts, a, b, c, and d, ending in the early eleventh century. Period II has two parts, A and B, though the divide between the two is rather vague and could be entirely arbitrary, and dates from the mid eleventh to the late twelfth for the former, and late twelfth to late thirteenth century for the latter. Period III runs from the late thirteenth century to the fourteenth when Period IV picks up and ends in the early Sixteenth. Period V covers the mid Sixteenth and all of the seventeenth, and the final period covers everything after the Seventeenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pueblo pottery</span> Pottery of the Pueblo people of the American Southwest

Pueblo pottery are ceramic objects made by the indigenous Pueblo people and their antecedents, the Ancestral Puebloans and Mogollon cultures in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. For centuries, pottery has been central to pueblo life as a feature of ceremonial and utilitarian usage. The clay is locally sourced, most frequently handmade, and fired traditionally in an earthen pit. These items take the form of storage jars, canteens, serving bowls, seed jars, and ladles. Some utility wares were undecorated except from simple corrugations or marks made with a stick or fingernail, however many examples for centuries were painted with abstract or representational motifs. Some pueblos made effigy vessels, fetishes or figurines such as Cochiti Pueblo. During modern times, pueblo pottery was produced specifically as an art form to serve an economic function. This role is not dissimilar to prehistoric times when pottery was traded throughout the Southwest, and in historic times after contact with the Spanish colonialists.

References