[Aztlan] Ancient Clay Samples

[Anasazidogs at aol.com]

Your clay bases sound like what we call a 'puki' here in the southwest,  
while we have found them in potters graves I have never heard of a stack of  
them. 'Pukis' were used as the starting form for a pot and supported it as 
the  potter turned it. there was usually a small bit of raw clay left on the 
puki to  facilitate removal of the pot, later.
 
DODY  

 
In a message dated 9/8/2009 9:56:39 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
mhopkins at fas.harvard.edu writes:

Hi,  Bradley.

A couple of questions:

Are you sure that these were  once part of larger vessels? Basal molds are 
known from some places, and  can resemble pot bases. Check the color 
profiles in the wall.

It is  also the case that pot bases can be used as basal molds & any number 
 
of other things. These are not necessarily firing failures; they can be  
just plain old broken pots. (Nor are firiing failures necessarily obvious  
from every sherd from the pot ...)

Have a look at Jim Sheehy's  dissertation & mine ("Teotihuacan cooking pots 
..." 1995 or 6) for  more info. on opportunistic tools, firing failures, 
and basal  molding.

As to chem. alteration of the clay during burial, I'd expect  it to be 
relatively slight given the degree of enclosure that you  describe. But 
that's an off-the-cuff opinion, I'm not an expert  there.

Sounds like a neat find, looking forward to hearing more about  it.

MH

On Fri, 4 Sep 2009, Bradley Russell  wrote:

>
> Dear Listeros,
>
>
>
> This  summer while excavating a structure we believe was associated with 
>  ceramic production near the center of the Postclassic city of Mayapan, I 
 
> encountered three very interesting offerings.  All three  consisted of 
> stacked olla bases with the bulk of the vessel removed,  leaving 
> essentially large ceramic platters.  Between each vessel  in the stacks 
> were layers of what appears to be raw clay.  The  most interesting thing 
> about the clay was that different vessels in  the stacks had clay of 
> different types (red, brown, buff, etc. as  each susbequent vessel was 
> removed).
>
>
>
>  The first one we found was along the centerline of the structure, a 
>  second was associated with an infant burial (about 1 1/2 years old) and  
> the third was sealed below the floor of the sub-structure covered by  the 
> structure I was there to investigate.  All three appear to  be associated 
> with the sub-structure occupation.  The initial  find contained 17 
> vessel/clay layers. The others two had six and five  layers respectively.
>
>
>
> My initial interpretation  of these offerings is that they are ollas that 
> failed in firing and  were recycled as clay storage or mixing vessels at 
> the production  site.
>
>
>
> If correct, that would mean that the  clays found inside of the vessels 
> were original, ancient clays  actually dug for production by inhabitants 
> of the site.  I find  that a fascinating prospect as it would make for 
> very interesting  sourcing work.
>
>
>
> My question is, does anyone  know of any similar finds of stacked ceramic 
> and clay offerings or  other finds of original clays in their 
> archaeological context in  Mesoamerica or elsewhere?
>
>
>
> Another question I  have is, to what degree is it likely that the 
> chemical signatures of  these clays would be altered from their years 
> surrounded by the fill  covering them?
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any  leads,
>
>
>
> Brad Russell
>
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