Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 84, 2013 Page: 90
270 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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90 Texas Archeological Society
is both a formal attribute and a stylistic one. For
the purpose of descriptive clarity, however, this
tripartite division is a convenient way of rationally
ordering and defining the diverse set of specific
characteristics by which Rockport ware is definable
and recognizable.
Technological Attributes
These are the discernible aspects of sherds
which specifically represent the technical aspects
of clay preparation, vessel construction, and firing.
In Rockport ware they include:
" Aplastic inclusions, or tempering materials
(e.g., sand, crushed bone, particles of shell).
Rockport ware contains an abundance of fine,
well-sorted sand. Under low power (10-20X)
microscopy, the sand inclusions within the
clay body are very similar to those seen in
the sandy clays of the region's Beaumont
Formation, and it is likely that such sandy
clays were chosen by aboriginal potters be-
cause the natural sand inclusions served as a
tempering agent. Crushed bone is frequently
also present as an added temper, although
typically not in the profuse quantities seen in
the ceramics of the inland Toyah horizon. In-
deed, patterned differences in the proportions
of sherds with sparse (<5% of clay body),
moderate (5-25% of clay body) and profuse
(>25% of clay body) quantities of bone tem-
per have been effectively used to distinguish
sites of the Rockport phase vs. the Toyah
horizon at the spatial interface of the two tra-
ditions at slightly inland locations along the
Texas central coastal plain (see Ricklis 1995a;
1996:Appendix A). Sparse inclusions of shell
particles are occasionally present, although
as suggested by Story (1968), these may have
been natural inclusions in lagoonal clays and
do not appear in the profuse quantities seen in
true shell-tempered pottery. Other inclusions,
such as caliche (CaCO3) particles, are likewise
sparsely represented and are probably natural
occurrences within the clay, especially if it was
gathered from Beaumont Formation deposits,
in which caliche is often present. Grog temper
(crushed pottery), although common in Upper
Coast ceramics (e.g.,Aten 1983), is altogether
absent in Rockport ware." Coil breaks (broken edges of sherds on which
there is the observable presence of a joint
between two constructional coils of clay).
" Colors of sherds, indicative of oxidizing vs.
reducing firing atmospheres. Free exposure
of the vessel to oxygen (air) during firing
indicates an open firing technique in which
the vessel was oxidized by exposure to air,
resulting in a relatively light sherd color (e.g.,
red, orange, white, buff-colored, depending
on amounts of iron in the clay). Conversely,
if the vessel was more or less cut off from
air flow during firing (e.g., it was largely or
completely covered by fuel), the result was a
reduced, dark color (e.g., dark gray to nearly
black). Incomplete oxidation, wherein the
core of the sherd retains a dark color while
one or both surfaces were oxidized to a
lighter color such as a light buff, yellow, red,
or orange, is common in Rockport ware and
presumably indicates a rapid, or relatively
short-lived firing process in which the core
was not fired for sufficient time for the oxida-
tion process to fully penetrate the vessel wall.
Occasional mottling of surface colors (e.g.,
patchiness of both dark and light-colored
surface areas) indicates that the vessel was
fired under conditions in which different
parts of the vessel were exposed to differing
amounts of air flow.
Formal Attributes
This group of attributes can be subdivided into
several subcategories, all or most of which are
readily observable on individual rim sherds (gener-
ally speaking, rim sherds represent that portion of
the pottery vessel on which the maximum number
of attributes is observable). Formal attributes of
Rockport pottery are:
" Rim shape may be straight, everted, or in-
verted (Figure 3).
" Lip form may be flat, rounded, or pointed
(Figure 3)
* Sherd/vessel-wall thickness
" Vessel shape is generally determinable only
with relatively large sherds or reconstructed
portions of vessels. May be bowl, jar, olla,
neckless olla, or bottle-like (Figure 4).
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Texas Archeological Society. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, Volume 84, 2013, periodical, 2013; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1222741/m1/94/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Archeological Society.