What can we learn about people through their pots? - Archaeology Ep 4

Archaeologists are always finding pieces of pottery (potsherds). If lucky, one might even find a beautiful pot smothered in artwork. These artefacts may usually be modest in appearance, but they hold significant value for archaeologists. In this episode, I dive into some of the interesting things we can learn about people through their pots, looking at themes like (“the father of Egyptian archaeology”) Sir William Flinders Petrie’s development of seriation and trends in the past, ancient beliefs and gender norms as seen on a pot’s artwork, the use of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and ancient DNA to find out what a pot contained and what people ate, and characterization studies to find out who was trading with who. #archaeology #madamarchaeologist #archaeological #archaeologist #archaeologicaldiscoveries #archaeologicaldiscovery #archaeogem #archaeohistories #archaeologicalfinds #ancient #pottery #potterypainting #ancientpottery
00:00 Intro
01:25 Seriation, trends, Sir William Flinders Petrie
03:06 Ancient beliefs
03:42 Gender norms
04:17 Food / residues, GC-MS
04:57 Medieval cuisine Islamic Sicily
06:01 Pot function
06:31 Form equals function, medieval farm
07:02 DNA
07:28 Trade / characterization studies
08:38 Trade in ancient Egypt
09:23 End

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