February 19, 2018
by Hannah Rea, Social Media Intern
Pigments
Humans have used visual means to express themselves, long before words were recorded. One way of doing this is through painting pottery. Paint was created with pigments, which came from whatever materials the artist could find.
Different minerals and plants created different colors. Here are some of the common materials used and the colors they produced:
Charcoal – Gray or Black
Limestone/Crushed Shells – White
Copper – Blue/Green
Ochre/Hematite/Iron ore – Red/Orange
The material was first ground into powder, then mixed with some kind of liquid or other binding agent. This was then used to decorate the pot, either by being used like paint or mixed into the clay itself.
Negative Painted Pottery
There was another manner of decoration which focused less on the color of the paint, and more on the color of the pot itself.
Negative painted pottery, demonstrated on some sherds of pottery found at Angel Mounds, used the natural color of the pottery to create the pattern.
In a master’s thesis from 1950, Hilda J. Curry gives the most commonly proposed explanation –wax or some similar material was used to block out the desired designs, and the entire pot was covered in paint, usually black in color. Once placed in a heat source to fire the clay, the wax would melt away, leaving sections of the vessel uncovered by paint.
In an article published in the Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, negative painted pottery is described as being found “almost exclusively” during the Middle Mississippian period, which dates from 1200-1500 CE. Most sherds and pots demonstrating the process have been found in the Lower Ohio River Valley; near Nashville, Tennessee; and in southeast Missouri. It is a rare find, but is considered to be a signature item of the Angel Mounds site since large quantities of negative painted pottery have been found there. The exact origins are unclear, and there is some evidence to suggest the process was originally used on fabric.
Though many samples of negative painted plates, vessels and bowls have been found, a debate is underway on the precise purpose and origin of the process.
Sources:
Baumann, Timothy E., Tammie L. Gerke and Eleanora A. Reber. “Sun Circles and Science: Negative Painted Pottery from Angel Mounds (12Vg1).” Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 38:2 (2013). 219-244.
Curry, Hilda J. “Negative Painted Pottery of Angel Mounds Site and Its Distribution in the New World.” Master’s thesis, Indiana University, 1950.