Why does so much of archaeology revolve around pottery?

I’ll include the continuing caveat that I’m a history, rather than anthropology, major, so there were so many things I didn’t know when I arrived in Cyprus. I’d always wondered why so much of any history museum included rooms (and sometimes rooms and rooms) of pottery. Yes, ancient pottery can be beautiful or charming or impressive, but why, I couldn’t help but ask myself, was it so important to display so much? What was it about pottery that made it seemingly central to archaeology?

Pottery, it turns out, is the most commonly found thing on sites and is, if not essential, extremely helpful for establishing chronology. The typologies, or general classification of a type or kind, of ceramics change over time. This can happen because of technological, cultural, or environmental changes. A certain type of oil lamp, for example, might be very common for years before it becomes unfashionable or economically impractical. There are certain shapes that are, in reality, easier to work with than others when it comes to classification. This kind of chronological classification — Cypro- Geometric, Cypro- Archaic, Cypro-Classical, Hellenistic– helps with periodization and expands on the chronological context of the site. Cyprus has been inhabited since the Neolithic, which means there’s a wide range of pottery types. Because Cyprus is so rich with archaeological findings, there’s a pretty good chance that periodization through pottery will land you in the right time in history.

Pottery speaks to what people were up to. Pottery was used every day and reveals what activities people were engaged in. I’ve heard pottery described as the “plastic of the ancient world”: used to make everything from ornamentation to cookware to storage vessels to cookware. The function of a pot is directly (for the most part) revealed in the shape. A casserole dish looks different than a wine jug, which looks different than a storage amphora. Pottery typographies can be cross checked with other sites around Cyprus, indicating certain island-wide or even Mediterranean-wide trends.

Pottery made in Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age looks different than pottery made in Laconia, Greece, or in the Late New Kingdom in Egypt. If pottery from roughly the same time period but from very different regions or styles appear in the same archaeological context, then you can surmise that trade existed between the two areas. Very fine examples of pottery, either indigenous or imported, can indicate the wealth of an area or individual.

Pottery, it turns out, gives us a window into the lived experiences of past peoples. It allows us to understand what they were doing and how they did it.

-Miki Hollingsworth