Kan, Yu-Chun; Chiang, Chih-hua; (2023) 虎頭山公園的史前陶胎：岩象分析與實驗考古的物質性探索 Clay pastes from prehistoric Hutoushankongyuan (HTSKY)：a study on materiality through petrography and experimental archaeology. 考古人類學刊 Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology , 99 pp. 1-74. 10.6152/jaa.2023012_(99).0001.

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Abstract

Petrography provides not only clues for provenance studies, but more importantly, insight into past human-thing relationship demonstrated in the processes of clay preparation from the perspective of materiality. Building on a previous case study of Hutoushankongyuan (HTSKY), this study finds great diversity in paste and particle granulometry under a polarized microscope, despite the simple vessel typology and similar clay sources near the site. By comparing the inter-relationships among paste characteristics, typological attributes and archaeological contexts, this article attempts to discuss how various paste materialities were defined and produced across time. Experimental briquettes as reference samples were prepared by several techniques, including settling, wet-sieving, dry-sieving, clay mixing, sand tempering, and grog tempering. A comparison of these samples and the thin section of HTSKY sherds suggests that numerous wares at the Hutoushankongyuan site were made with heterogeneous clay. The fine-paste, impressed ware dated to 1900-1700 BP might have been prepared with settled and "moist-moist mixed" clay. The contemporaneous coarse sand-tempered ware shared similar basic clay with crushed or ground tempers added, indicating the importance of 'mixing' in defining paste materiality. Some earlier fine ware (2800-2700 BP) discovered on the south-western margin of the site exhibits another paste preparation technique, likely the dry -sieving method. The cord-marked red pottery dated to approximately 4000 years ago demonstrates yet another kind of heterogeneous paste produced by "dry-moist mixing" technique, sharing a similar logic of 'tempering' as the coarse sand-tempered wares from the same period.

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