Used to think ancient pottery was too boring to study...

I always skipped the pottery sections in archaeology articles because I thought they were just broken old dishes. Then I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last spring and saw a display of Greek pottery from 500 BCE with actual painted scenes showing daily life. A docent explained that the clay composition can tell you exactly where the pot was made, down to a specific riverbed. After that I started reading about how pot sherds at a dig site in Turkey helped map out trade routes from 3000 BCE. Now I actually get excited when someone posts about markings on a rim fragment because those details solve real puzzles. Has anyone else had a specialty they dismissed until you saw the evidence firsthand?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicemurphy7d ago

The Greek pottery display at the MFA got me too, but for me it was the terracotta army in Xi'an that changed my whole view on ceramic artifacts. I always thought ancient pottery was just old dishes and vases until I saw those life sized soldiers with unique faces and realized each one was molded by a different craftsman. Now I can't stop reading about how Chinese tomb pottery from 200 BC reveals social hierarchies and military organization. The little details like fingerprints in the clay or pigment traces give you this direct connection to someone who lived thousands of years ago.

pat_stone7d ago

Wow, the terracotta army changed your view on ceramic artifacts? I thought those guys were just really committed to their day jobs as ancient action figures (you know, eternally standing guard). Seriously though, that's a pretty big leap from "old dishes" to "life-sized soldiers with unique faces" but I guess that's the kind of mind-blowing thing that happens when you see them in person. So now you're reading about 200 BC tomb pottery? That's a deep rabbit hole to fall into, but at least you aren't digging through a literal one.

nguyen.morgan6d ago

alicemurphy, do the fingerprints ever make you feel like you're spying on someone's work break from 2000 years ago?