Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Have You Seen This Sherd?

By Angela Huster

I think every archaeological project must have a code for “other unidentified type” sherds, as well as box where said type of sherds all end up. This box is then waved in front of visiting archaeologists in the hope that they will go “Oh yes, that’s obviously a ……”

In a virtual version of box-waving, here are a few of our unidentified sherds. Any comments would be greatly appreciated, particularly from people working west of us.


C-2585/122 : The interior is the same color as the exterior undercolor. The vessel has straight, relatively vertical walls. It could be either a bowl or a relatively large copa – there isn’t enough to get a good rim diameter reading. The paste is medium-fine and light buff colored.


C-1028/122: The interior is dark red. The rim diameter measures 14cm and the vessel wall is outflaring and slightly recurve. This is probably a bowl, though a large copa is also a possibility. It has a very fine orangeish paste.


C-2033/122: The design in the picture is on the inside of the support and underside of the bowl base. All the other portions of the sherd are solid shiny brown. While this is clearly a tripod bowl, it is not a molcajete (grater bowl), and the support is hollow with a rattle. The paste is medium-coarse and light buff colored.


C-1504/122: This probably a large, simple hemispherical bowl. The rim diameter measures 27cm, and the exterior is plain. The interior design is negative. The paste is medium-coarse and medium brown colored.


C-2018/38: This is part of the body of an olla or pitcher. The design is probably negative, but the limited number of lines make it hard to tell. The paste is medium-coarse and medium brown colored.

2 comments:

Michael E. Smith said...

Yes, I have seen all of these sherds!! But if I knew what they were, you wouldn't have posted these here. Good idea, I hope we get some good identifications.

Angela Huster said...

Mike -
Actually, I pulled the first one out of the B-0 category in one of the lots I was sampling, so you might be able to provide suggestions on that one.