Making Me Whole

You all know who I am, Herb the pot herd, but what if I wasn't just a sherd anymore?

Archaeologists actually have the ability to try to make me whole again!

I wasn't found by myself, I was found with lots of other pieces. Some of them belonged to my pot, but others didn't. Archaeologists had to take all of us, and figure out who belonged to who and how we all fit together. So, they have a way to take messes like this:

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And turn them into pots that look like this:

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They do this mostly by looking for pieces that are called diagnostics. These pieces of things like rims and handles can give archaeologists an idea of what the pot as a whole probably looked like without needing all the pieces!

Sometimes, putting most of the pot back together again is possible. But sometimes they can't because they don't have enough pieces or a place to store it or they think it would stay in better condition as separate pieces. So, they create drawings of what the pot should look like!

Although I am not a diagnostic piece, the archaeologists found lots of pieces around me, and were able to make a drawing of what I looked like! Here I am!

A Manual of Egyptian Pottery, Wodzińska

Once archaeologists were able to draw me, they could fit me into the history of pots themselves. They say I'm from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, cool right? Here are some other Middle Kingdom pots that were found around me:

A Manual of Egyptian Pottery, Wodzińska

A Manual of Egyptian Pottery, Wodzińska

Can you see the similarities?

Some pots are similar, and some are very different. Some pots are made relatively the same over and over through time, but others undergo changes. These changes are what archaeologists use to determine how old a pot is that they find!

Pots have a style, meaning they have a specific shape, color, decoration, and design. Many pots with similar style are considered a pot type, called typology. Style can change over time, but very slowly. So, what archaeologists look to do is map out those changes and create a timeline of pottery. Then, when they find a new pot and figure out what it looks like, they can match it to other pots that were already found and put into the timeline! These timelines are called serations. Once example that shows both typologies and seriation is this:

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While archaeologists have other ways to date me, seriation for pottery in Egypt is very detailed because of the amount that is left and the amount of work previous archeologists have put into creating a detailed timeline.

So yay, we know what I looked like, and where I fit, but what about what I actually did when the Ancient Egyptians used me?