Geochemistry of Harappan potteries from Kalibangan and sediments in the Ghaggar River： Clues for a dying river

The ephemeral Ghaggar-Hakra River of northwestern India has always been considered to be the remnant of an ancient perennial glacier-fed river（Vedic Saraswati）. The exact reason and timing of major hydrological change of this river remains speculative. The river＇s purported association with the zenith of the Harappan civilisation remains a conjecture because the timings of its fluvial past are still being debated. In this study we have made an attempt to resolve this issue using geochemical provenance of sediments from some dated horizons in the Ghaggar flood plain and that of the material used in the potteries from the Mature Harappan period（4600-3900 yr BP） at Kalibangan. Sampled sedimentary horizons were dated by radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence（OSL） methods. Results of our study from the Ghaggar alluvium indicate that the river did have glacial sources during the early Holocene. However, the data from the potteries suggest that during the Mature Harappan period, the sediments in the Ghaggar as used by the potters did not have a higher Himalayan provenance and hence, were not derived from glaciated Himalayas.These findings imply that during the time of the Mature Harappans the Ghaggar had already become a foothill-fed river.

Lead poisoning due to geophagia: The consumption of miniature pottery

Geophagia (the pica of pottery, clay, earth, or dirt) is practiced before and during pregnancy in several countries, including Mexico, Turkey, Australia, and some African countries, and has been linked with cultural fertility beliefs and the satisfaction of cravings. Unfortunately, consumption of contaminated pottery can represent a source of lead exposure. Concerns regarding ingested pottery are two-fold;first, that people consuming these pots might be exposed to high concentrations of lead, and, second, that ingestion of these pots by pregnant women could result in elevated in utero lead exposure for the fetus. Very few published articles exist on this topic. In an effort to investigate “pot eating”, this study aims to summarize published case studies on lead poisonings resulting from consumption of contaminated pottery. Additionally, several pottery items that are sold for the purpose of consumption were located and analyzed. This paper investigates the risk that “pot eating” poses by reviewing the literature, examining case studies, and analyzing the availability and lead concentration of edible pottery. Preliminary research indicates that although it is not common, “pot eating” can represent a high-risk lead exposure for pregnant women and their fetuses.

谈陶瓷艺术的节奏美

节奏并不是音乐艺术中所特有的。在日常生活和陶瓷艺术中同样存在节奏。本文就陶瓷艺术节奏美的表现形式从三个方面进行阐述 ,使人们在设计和欣赏陶瓷艺术的同时感受到陶瓷艺术的节奏美 ,开拓审美视野。

Quality of Irrigated Water with Nanometer Pottery Tray Treatment and Its Effects on Seed Soaking

To study the impacts of nanometer pottery trays （NPTs） on different rice varieties, three rice varieties, Zhongzheyou 1, Jinzao 47 and Xiushui 09, were treated with four NPTs （NPT-A, NPT-B, NPT-C and NPT-D） with different energies, respectively. The results showed that when the same rice variety was treated with different NPTs or different rice varieties were treated with the same NPT, the impacts on seed germination rate, seedling growth, plant height, panicle length and weight, the number of filled grains, seed-setting rate and 1000-grain weight varied between different rice variety-NPT interaction groups. In general, high energy NPT-C and NPT-D treatments obviously enhanced the functions of most examined rice characters. For example, NPT-C and NPT-D treatments improved the germination rate of all the three rice varieties, and promoted the root growth of seedlings, and increased seedling fresh weight, single panicle weight, filled grain number per panicle, seed-setting rate and 1000-grain weight. On the contrary, low energy NPT-A treatment restrained the seed germination rate in Jinzao 47 and Zhongzheyou 1, and decreased the seedling fresh weight in Zhongzheyou 1. NPT-B treatment restrained the seedling growth in Jinzao 47 but increased the panicle length of Zhongzheyou 1. NPT-A and NPT-C treatments obviously decreased the 1000-grain weight in Xiushui 09. Therefore, when treating crop seeds or plants using nanomaterials or nanotechnologies, different types of crops/varieties should select the nanomaterials or nanotechnologies with suitable energies to reduce the negative effects.

Optical and fast nondestructive identification of the ages of leaded ancient pottery

In this paper,based on the one-dimensional（1D） optical superlattice model,we calculate the average reflectivities（ARs） of leaded ancient pottery（AP） made within the last 2000 years,and find that for incident light with a suitable wavelength,the AR of the leaded AP increases monotonously with the increase in the layer number of the silvery glaze（SG） media.Based on this property,we propose an optical nondestructive method for identifying the age of leaded AP by detecting the AR.By using the exhaust algorithm and the discriminant function of variance,we obtain the optimal wavelength range of the incident light to identify the ages of the leaded AP.It is found that in the visible light band,if we choose green light with a wavelength range of 540-540.1 nm as the incident light,leaded AP made within the last 2000 years can be identified swiftly and precisely by detecting the ARs.This will be useful for designing optical instruments for the fast nondestructive identification of the ages of leaded AP.

Physico-Chemical Study of the Neolithic Ceramics of the Region of Oran (Northwest Algeria)

Neolithic sites in Oran are rich in ceramic pottery.Microscopic and chemical analysis of products is closely linked to the subsequent development of the main analytical methods:optical microscopy and X-ray fluorescence.This study learns more about the mineralogical constituents of some caves pottery shards,ceramic typology of the Oran region,likely from the basic raw material(common clay,various types of regolith,silty loams,rarely marl),knowledge of the nature of intentionally added degreasers and characterized geological and archaeological context,also combined with the microscopic study of thin pottery blades met these requirements allowing us to showcase the progress of these ancient societies.

Exploitation and Excavation of Land for Clay as Raw Material for Potters in Vume in the Volta Region of Ghana

Clay is a precious natural resource that is used in practically every aspect of life. It has a wide range of applications, including utilitarian and aesthetic items as well as electrical and electronic gadgets. Vume is rich in clay types, which may be found in vast concentrations. In Vume, the commonest way of clay winning is the open pit method. Most clay winners usually abandoned the sites after their clay winning activities without any effort to reclaim it. As a result, the study was designed to investigate the causes of such clay over exploitation and its consequences in Vume. The study employed qualitative research method with phenomenological approach to investigate the problem. The convenience sampling as non-probabilty sampling method was adopted to select six (6) clay winners from two (2) sampling sites of clay winning, making a total sampling size of twelve (12) for this research. The justification was that these clay winners were available at the clay sites and also engaging in unsystematic clay winning activities during the visits by the researchers. The main instruments used for data collection were interviews and direct observation of sites. The study showed that if this rapid clay depletion was not addressed, it would have a negative impact on the pottery and ceramic centers in Vume. The study recommended among others that, there could be proper mechanism to organize clay winners into Small Scale Enterprises and become official distributors of clay to potters in Vume and other industries as well as institutions within the catchment area so that government could get tax revenue from the clay winning activities to develop Vume and the country at large.

Ceramic Art Reality in the Context of Technology History

The art of ceramics originates from the basic activities of human beings,and uses the tools,following the methods,and the visual production activities combined with aesthetics.Modern technology has spawned new ceramic decoration methods and provided new ideas for artistic creation.Ceramic art relies on ceramic crafts.As the most technical form of many art categories,it is the representative of the“Combination of Art and Crafts”of arts and crafts,and it is the perfect embodiment of“Beauty”in the space-time carrier.The history of Chinese ceramic glaze shows that the study of the history of ceramic technology should rely on the aesthetics of ceramics,and the problems related to the interpretation of modern ceramic art cannot be separated from the context of the history of ceramic technology.

AYNSLEY：莹润粉彩

雪后初晴，风日宁好，天空清明澄净。西窗外，可见一脉灰蓝色的远山峰峦，山岩间依然有未曾消融的淡淡雪痕。站在阁楼天窗前，可见青天下，邻家红色砖瓦屋顶上，浅浅覆盖着一层绒绒的白雪。

Double-body pottery pot

The double-body pottery pot was unearthed in 1977 at the Karub ruins in Chamdo,Tibet,and has a history of more than 4,000 years.The shape of the vessel is made of two identical bag-shaped gallipots connected together,so it is named"double-body pot".According to the fibet Museum,the pot mouse has a diameter of 11.3cm,a bottom diameter of 8.4cm and a height of 19cm.Its texture is yellow pottery with sand.The mouth is horn shaped,straight neckt abdomen is con nected bag shaped double body,cervical shoulder has a pair of holes for tying rope.The surface of the pot is exquisitely decorated;with the use of carved lines and Cinnabar black painting decoration.The ware is full and beautiful in shape,ingenious in conception and skilled in craftsmanship,which represents the highest level of pottery production of Karub culture at that time and is known as the representative work of neolithic pottery in Tibet.

KOKO AND HIS POTTERY JARS

Andicrafts are much in vogue in the world today, and the pottery unique to Taba Uillage are famous for their unsophisticated style. If it is possible to find an appropriate pattern of products, such as pottery jars in ancient China or local potteries in Africa, trying to follow the trend of selling international traveling craftwork arts, maybe it will be an outlet of Taba Uillage.

Pottery lipid analysis at the Shangzhai site,Beijing,and its implication for subsistence strategy

As the crossroads of prehistoric cultures,the Beijing region is an important area for studying the exchange of prehistoric culture and the spread of millet agriculture.Although millet remains have been found in the Donghulin site during the Early Neolithic Age,there is little millet remains during the Middle and Late Neolithic Age,so there is a gap of approximately2,000 years since the time of the Donghulin site.The Shangzhai site is located in the Pinggu Basin in eastern Beijing,and it has a large time span with sequential strata;however,there are few large animals and plant remains found at this site,thus the subsistence strategy of ancient people remains unclear.In this study,the absorbed lipids of pottery sherds unearthed in the Neolithic cultural layer of the Shangzhai site were extracted and analysed.The results show that these potteries were used to process millet,the meat of terrestrial non-ruminants and wild ruminants,and dairy of wild ruminants,providing new insights for the subsistence strategy and the development of millet agriculture in the Middle and Late Neolithic Age of Beijing.In addition,the food processing in pottery may be an internal heating method,such as stone boiling.

The Interaction Sphere in Northwest China of the Bronze Age

Built on the foundation of cultural exchange with the Central Plain and foreign entities from Central Asia,a distinct and unique sphere of interaction was established in Northwest China during the Bronze Age.The Painted Pottery Culture of China,originating from the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River,along with related agricultural elements,intersected with the Bronze Culture of the western world and its accompanying agricultural and animal husbandry elements,as they both spread and converged in the northwestern region of China.This convergence of cultures forms the fundamental basis of the unique interaction sphere in that area.The formation of the interaction sphere in Northwest China,marked by the conflicts and integration of different cultures,gave rise to unparalleled cultural creativity.This interaction sphere sits at the core of the vortex of east-west culture exchange.The communication and interactions between east and west in the Bronze Age lead to the deepening of mutual learning among eastern and western civilizations,play a pivotal role in the advancement of Central Plain civilization,and embed"inclusiveness"as one of the most crucial inherent characteristics of the Chinese civilization.

Scientific studies on pottery and pro-porcelain from group of graves in Henglingshan, Guangdong Province

The findings of the Henglingshan group of graves, Guangdong Province, were appraised as one of the ten major archaeological excavations in 2000. The pottery and proto-porcelain samples excavated from the group of graves in Henglingshan are very important for studying the development history of Guang-dong ceramics. In this paper, the chemical compositions, micro-structure and physical properties of the samples were systematically analyzed. The results were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis. Different compositional patterns were found for specimens from different periods. The reasons for these variations were discussed. In addition, compared with the pottery and proto-porcelain samples from different production sites in other provinces of China, the obvious regional characters and unique law of the development for ancient ceramics of Guangdong were also discussed.