Classifying Mayan pottery:

Let's review, why is pottery such an important subject in archaeological analysis? Well, pottery contains more information than we might think. Can you explain what you mean? (2)Well, ，，, like sudden changes in the style and shape of pottery might help us figure out when certain cultures might contact each other, and borrowed each other's ideas, designs, even technology. Good. Today I want to expand our discussion into the topic of classifying pottery. Classification is simply an attempt to categorize or group the pottery based on specific characteristics. We'll look at ancient Mayan pottery, which, is you know by now, is my specialty. Archaeologists have traditionally attempted to classify these vessels by using a single classification system, (3)but the complexity, the variation of ancient Mayan pottery is just too great, in my opinion, to use only one system. I advocate the use of several systems, as do some of my colleagues who've been researching the Mayan archaeological sites of Mexico and Central America. By utilizing more than one system of classification, we aren't as likely to neglect important details or lose important information. (3) So I think what you are saying is when we use a single classification system, we can't label a vessel with lots of details, but when we classify in a lot of different ways that give us a more complete picture. Yes. And if we are able to label a large quantity of pottery in several ways, we can more clearly see relationships between them. Because of having a more complete picture of each one, I mean, everybody in this class is from a different state of the country, nobody is from the exact same place. (4)So if I only classify people by where they from, I might say that you have nothing in common. (4) But, what if I add more layers. Andrew, you're a skier, Sarah is also a skier. (4)So if we have a classification for your extra-curricular activities, we find you two have something in common: snow-skiing. I get it. So we begin by determining what classifications will be possible, and what classifications will be useful. These will in my opinion, vessel shapes, surface finish, which looks at texture, and finally what we all, pastes, I'll explain pastes later. Would you limit to just three classification systems, shapes, surface finishing, and pastes. Not necessarily. When we encounter a pottery decorated with a lot of detail, we might want to add a classification system for this too, what we could call, decoration. So let's look at my first classification type: pottery shapes. We need to consider the basic proportions and size of an object. (5) But what if the object is broken? Obviously, intact pottery is the best, (5) but if all we have in front of us is a collection of pieces, as long as those pieces are of reasonable size, we can still classify shapes reliably. We just have to reconstruct the object. Even if you are able to reconstruct and then determine how to classify pottery in terms of shape, you might be unable to classify it in surface finish. For instance， with many of the potteries collections found in the archaeological site of Plaikai, too little surface finish was preserved to make a determination. Really what we need are comprehensive and accurate illustrations of ancient Mayan pottery. Having drawings of their profile allows us to compare the shapes of pottery, found in different archaeological sites. Because of course, we can't personally go to all the locations. (6)But even when archaeologists and art historians do attempt to illustrate every single piece, there are problems. Like, three different people might draw the profile of the same pot, but the drawings don't turn out exactly the same? (6) Very true. Illustrating involves some simplification of the pottery and people may have different ideas of which features are important to keep in a

drawing, and which can be left out. What else? Well, drawing a profile of every single pot probably takes tons of time, so it can be expensive. Aha? But digital photography is so popular and inexpensive now, why don't we just give up on drawings and make a collection of photographs, you can't get more accurate than a photograph. That's a natural question; I'll get to that in a second.