How was pottery used

[TJdave]

Please forgive my complete ignorance and this might not be the right spot to post the question, but exactly how was pottery used to cook? Was it placed directly on coals and the contents boiled/roasted or did it require indirect heat?

[SGT.Digger]

I know that super hot stones where placed inside to boil stuff. I’ve seen remnants of a skin pot on the pecos River in Texas they used animal skin/hide that was used as a pot to boil in. Some of The Tennessee pottery I’ve seen is charred black inside and not on the outside. I’ll post a couple pics tonight . Maybe they had some pit fires inside pottery to better control the heat or fire for what they were cooking especially if resources were limited or inclimate weather.

[Jethro355]

The boiling stones was probably the most common method, but many pots were made to suspend above a fire to heat up with direct heat....at a distance, if that makes sense. I have some I’ll post pictures of.

[Jethro355]

This is probably the best example I have of a hanging pot....

this is easily hung from a tripod with small cordage.

[TJdave]

Thank you for that. Ive read on how they were made and all the tempers and such but have never personally used any ceramic to cook with. It seemed very labor intensive to heat rocks and wasteful of firewood if your cooking a tough piece of meat for the entire clan

[Jethro355]

Also, lots of pottery(likely the preponderance of it) was used for storage or processing. About the only thing the native ate that HAD to be cooked was meat, and it could easily be spit roasted and added to a platter or bowl of vegetables that was warmed, like soup or stew. Cooking in a pot was not done in what we think of in our terms, like they didn’t drop a bunch of ingredients in a pot and set it on the fire for two hours until it was done. Pottery would break down prematurely and likely crack and fall apart with too much heat applied to the outside and water on the inside, so it was sort of a delicate process.

these are more for eating, gathering, or holding food or water.

[Kentucky point]

Those are all yours!?

[Jethro355]

Yessir. They are all mine, but not all of mine.

[Carolina Hunter]

Very nice collection. I guess no little kids handling those!

[TJdave]

So regardless it would have been labor intensive to cook in a pot, keeping the fire at just the right heat. I read a bit recently on coprolite finding from the great basin. Evidently rabbits at least were not always cooked (or even skinned and cleaned). Again thank you for sharing the knowledge and fantastic pics

[SGT.Digger]

So regardless it would have been labor intensive to cook in a pot, keeping the fire at just the right heat. I read a bit recently on coprolite finding from the great basin. Evidently rabbits at least were not always cooked (or even skinned and cleaned). Again thank you for sharing the knowledge and fantastic pics

Wow that’s savage to eat raw hair and all . Sure they didn’t happen on coyote scat or the droppings of an owl here’s a pic of one of the bigger fragments I have of Tennessee pottery that is blackened on the inside but not outside. I do ha e a few pieces that have charring on the outside but that could be because it was thrown into fire or whatever. I need to do some research on pottery from around theses parts.

[Jethro355]

What part of Tennessee are you in?
If it’s blackened on the inside, and you found it in this dig you’ve been working on, it’s likely a broken dish that was discarded in a fire, or broke into a fire while cooking...but about anything you can imagine is possible. I’ve dug a lot of what an archaeologist friend of mine says are their favorite finds, and that’s what we call trash pits. They always have broken pottery in them, turtle shells, muscle shells, bones, teeth, and usually knapping flakes. They would dig a hole about the size of a 5 gallon bucket in diameter and depth, and use it to discard pretty much everything they thought was trash, including pottery and ash from a fire. Once it reached a certain level of “full” they would fill it the rest of the way in, and dig a new one nearby. If you ever dig into one, the dirt will be measurably blacker than the surrounding earth.

[SGT.Digger]

I’m digging in eastern Cumberland plateau region . I’ve noticed that in this one shelter that they dug small pits to have their cooking fires. I’m not talking about hearths with rock or stone but just charcoal and ash. It’s really neat . When it get dryer I’ll go back to that place and post a video or two of what I’m referring too. It’s a cross section view and not a top down which gives a neat perspective

[Jethro355]

I love an excavation. Cross sections are so cool because you can see a timeline occasionally.

[TJdave]

My thoughts on the eating whole rabbit (back legs always removed as no lower leg bones found) is they were very much aware of rabbit starvation diet but noticed coyotes don't have that problem and 1 plus 1 is 2. Unfortunately for them they didn't understand parasites that they couldn't see. I live on the Angelina river so this summer Im going to gather some of that sticky river clay (looks like what the Caddo used much later) and try and make some grog pottery and experiment with it

[Jethro355]

Smash up some muscle shells to mix with it before you fire it. It is what they used to make it stronger.

[tomclark]

Definitely right on the coals here. No rocks around.

[Lone Star]

Here on the Texas Coastal Plain, specifically Chambers and Galveston Counties, There is no hard stone pf cooking quality. Occasionally there will be a sort of sandstone that shows up in the clam middens, but it's pretty scarce.
Thru the years I have noticed concretions that appear to be made of fired clay. On some I have seen what I believe to be pronounced finger indentations, so Maybe they created their own stone like objects for heating and cooking in the pots .
The Karankawa potteries appeared to be fired in the ground. They were immersed in the ground, and a fire was made within the pot to cure it. After which the inside or outside (or both) would be coated in a naturally gathered asphaltum for waterproofing.
I've seen many shards with holes, but I don't think they were used for anything other than pottery repair bindings to fix cracks or breaks. Many of the holes are on mid sections of pots, which explains the repair method.
I have found a few with holes closer to the rim, which lends me to believe that hanging pots probably was done here and there, depending on what they were trying to save or store. The thing to remember is that these people were mobile and didn't stay anywhere longer than the resources allowed. After 35 years I've never found a complete pot. Found enough shards over time to do some partial assemblies, but that's all.
I bet I've gathered over 100 lbs of shards over the years. I've gathered from the same places and kept them separate when possible to attempt to rebuild at a later date. I've done this until the shorelines were bulkheaded, and any trace of a camp was eliminated forever.

As a matter of fact I've been selling them by the bag or in a collectors display box on Ebay, since i retired.

[TJdave]

Thank your that. Its the little things like what it took to make dinner that Im completely intrigued with. Its amazing the things we do know, but the details like cooking dinner or did they brush their teeth, sleep patterns and such, they all make a huge impact on subsistence strategies and folks who put the time in like you help to answer those

[Hoss]

Nice info in this thread. I wanted to share this again. One of my all time favorite videos . This lady makes some very nice pottery.

[TJdave]

Amazing! I have a self imposed referendum on watching flint napping videos, but the fact I know zero about pottery other then reading the very little thats out there made this a very worth while watch

[Lone Star]

Excellent and informative. Thanks a lot. I enjoyed it.

[Carolina Hunter]

Thank you

[Hal Gorges]

pottery was also used in a ceremonial interment to accompany the deceased....different areas different ways ....example Mississippian mortuary pottery was almost never used.and just like now the folks with the most money probably got the biggest headstone .....sorry I got carried away on the last part there nufff of this ....over n out

[Jethro355]

Status was a huge determining factor in the amount and quality of funerary pottery as well.
At least among the Quapaw it was. Most burials received a bowl/plate and a jar or water bottle.
Some were painted and decorated. Child burials often had miniature versions of what was found in adult burials.
You are correct though. Those with the higher status had the biggest “headstones”.👍👍

Caddo, burials....now that’s another story. They buried very ornate stuff, and usually lots of it. I’ve seen examples of burials with as many as 13 separate vessels in them.