Trey Huneycutt Spring '25 Archaeology Blog

 For week 6 in ANT2100 we discussed The Archaeology of Pottery .  The first step was identifying the difference between Pottery and Ceramics.   Pottery is prehistoric, low-fired at less than 1200C, non-vitrified, coarse/porous and mostly unglazed.  Ceramics on the other hand are modern, fired at 1200C or more, vitrified, and are usually glazed.  Pottery can give us insights to cultural history, population size, site function, subsistence, migration/trade/exchange, and ideology.  We discussed the methodology of cataloging pottery to include sorting and counting sherds, recording thickness/wight/paste type/surface treatment, recording body/base/or rim, creating vessel lots, and comparing sherd count to MVC.  We also discussed how to estimate rim diameter and vessel form as well as identifying shapes/features and Basal (or base) Features .  We learned that The Venus of Dolni Vestonice , from the Czech Republic, may be the oldest clay-fired objects...

 Week five in Archaeology 2100 we covered the topics of Taphonomy, Experimental Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology.  Taphonomy is the study of how natural processes contribute to the formation of archaeological sites. An example used was the growth of strangling fig trees in the Ta Prohm Temple in Cambodia and how their massive roots have actually altered the structure over the years.  Experimental Archaeology refers to experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of human behavior.  An example of this was the modern recreation of a seashell decorated grave marker used in old African American cemeteries in Florida. Finally, Ethnoarchaeology is the study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record.  The example used was Lewis Binford's study of the modern Inuit and how their use of tools correspond to prehistoric Europeans.  I found this example interesting because I actually had t...