When you think of archaeological
artifacts, what do you usually think of? Cachets of coins, swords caked in
mud, maybe even some crystal skulls. Well, while all those things
are definitely exciting, they're not exactly the most common. One of the most frequently found
types of artifacts from archaeological sites are actually ceramics. Ceramics can be found all over the
world, and are one of the most important ways we can learn about the past. Even today, ceramics are
a part of our daily life. Maybe right now you're even drinking
coffee out of a ceramic mug. Hi, I'm Smiti and I'm an archaeologist. And in this video we're gonna explore
why archaeologists love ceramics. Let's start with some basic concepts. Ceramics are objects that
are made out of clay. Shaped clay objects are exposed to
super high temperatures, like in a kiln, which makes them hard and durable. There are many different types of ceramic
that vary based on factors like the type of clay and firing temperature. Common ceramic objects that archaeologists
often find include pots, jugs, amphora, plates, bowls, pipes, and my friend
Anya's personal favorite, pipkins. That's okay though, because these
objects can stay in the dirt for hundreds, even thousands of years,
virtually unchanged, even if they look like broken bits because fired
clay usually doesn't decompose easily. One of the major reasons that
archaeologists love ceramics is that we can use them as a dating tool. Not that kind of dating tool. You see, the decoration,
materials, and shapes of ceramic vessels often change over time. By studying these changes over time
and correlating them with time periods, archaeologists can create timelines
based on the type of ceramics they find. This is a method called seriation. I actually have a fun little video
up in the cards that I'll put that goes into detail about this method. This has been a really useful
method for sites across the world, especially in the American Southwest. The Pueblo people have a millennium
long history of creating beautiful ceramics with intricate designs
that change over the years. By carefully studying and documenting
these designs from ceramic pieces found at hundreds of sites, archaeologists have
been able to identify which designs are characteristics of what set of years. In other cases, certain types of
ceramics were only produced for a very specific set of years. Take borderware, for instance. This post medieval type was only created
in workshops on the border of West Surrey and Hampshire County in England during
the late 1500s and very early 1600s. Therefore, if archaeologists find
borderware at a site, they will likely conclude that the site
dates to the late 1500s or later. Seriation is a relative dating
technique because it's trying to create a sequence that relies on a
ceramics relation to another ceramic. There's also absolute dating,
which doesn't rely on such relationships and pinpoints
dates by scientifically analyzing specific properties of a ceramic. For example, thermoluminescence
dating uses scientific tools to measure the amount of energy trapped
within microscopic minerals of the clay used to make ceramics. This relies on the principle that when
certain minerals are exposed to heat, like in a kiln, they trap electrons. Scientists can reheat ancient
pieces of pottery and measure the energy that is released. Based on metrics discovered through
experimentation, archaeologists can figure out how old a ceramic is based on
the amount of energy release when they expose it to heat in a laboratory setting. For example, archaeologists working in
Bo Yang Thailand, use thermoluminescence dating to determine the age of
the iconic Old Historical Wall. The archaeologists knew that the
wall was likely built some time in the mid 18 hundreds and they use
Thermoluminescence on some brick rubble to determine that the old historical
wall was built between 1827 and 1841. Another reason archaeologists love
ceramics is that they can tell us about the daily lives of people in the past like what they were trading,
what technology they used, and what food they ate. Sometimes archaeologists find
pieces of ceramics that they know were not produced in that area. This can signal that people at that
site were trading with people outside their vicinity perhaps even across
long distances or even across oceans. Archaeologists working across
East Africa have found distinct... Distinctive Chinese made ceramics at
sites from as long ago as the 9th century. They found that Chinese ceramics
were highly valued and that wealthy East African merchants saw
them as powerful status symbols. Ceramics can also tell us a lot
about what people were eating. People often stored and served
food in ceramic containers, and sometimes molecules from that
food became embedded into the surface of the ceramics themselves. Can then conduct scientific
analyses to figure out what kind of food were in those vessels. For example archaeologists working at
a 15th and 16th century site in Puerto Rico analyzed ceramic pots and jars
to find that the people were eating a mix of Spanish foods like olives
and wine, alongside indigenous foods and plants like corn and cassava. For more about plants at archaeological
sites, check out this video up here. sometimes archaeologists love
ceramics because they can help us uncover how people in the past
viewed the world around them. Sometimes we find abstract or symbolic
designs on ceramic vessels, and in some cases this can signal spiritual beliefs. For example, archaeologists have
studied axe, horn, and ox designs on Bronze Age Minoan ceramics alongside
religious stories from that time period. This has helped us better understand
the ritual and religious aspects of ancient Mediterranean life at that time. While it can be really hard to know
what people hundreds or even thousands of years ago were actually thinking,
these types of artifacts give us a peek into the minds of people in the past. Ceramics may also provide
a way for archaeologists to understand social values. I I actually have a personal
example from the modern day. Now I live in Baltimore and one
of my favorite museums here is the Baltimore Museum of Art. And on a recent visit, I saw an exhibit
that beautifully illustrated this idea of ceramics relaying social values. An artist named Michelle Erickson had
an exhibit in which she explored her American and Middle Eastern identities
alongside the dark histories of the U. S. through ceramics. She draws inspiration from historic
ceramics like an 18th century English jug with image of two boxers and then
crafts her own jug with images of Colin Kaepernick and an enslaved African woman
to make a statement about the historical origins of modern racial inequality. This kind of art combines the ancient
technology of ceramics with popular colonial period forms and glazes to
then reimagine it to symbolize the experiences of people living today. So I would say a bonus reason for why
I personally appreciate ceramics is because they still persist to this day. Just like people in the past,
we use ceramics for functional as well as symbolic purposes. Ceramics, can give us a good idea
about what was going on during a certain time period, but also
how things changed over time In addition to understanding the past,
I really feel that ceramics can tell us a lot about who we are now and
where we might be going in the future.
