Rock Magnetic Characterization of Florida Pottery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The methods used in artifact provenance in archaeological research is constantly being added to and updated. Identifying the geographical origin of the artifacts can provide information about past mobility patterns and interaction networks. There are a number of mineralogical and elemental methods currently used to characterize pottery composition, but they are not always sufficient when the compositions do not vary much, such as in the depleted alluvial sediments of Florida. Rock magnetic techniques have been used to help assess provenance where other techniques have failed. Magnetic analysis can also be useful in learning about the firing temperature of a baked artifact. Florida’s inhabitants have been making pottery since the late Archaic period, around 4,000 years ago. Composition of the clay and the techniques used to make this pottery changes by region and time period. Currently, no one has assessed the magnetic properties of Florida pottery. Here, I will present preliminary rock magnetic analyses of Floridian potsherds within the Florida Museum of Natural History’s collection to better understand their magnetic properties with the goal of assessing if we can use magnetic techniques to better determine provenance and firing history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33477