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This is really quite nice work. The vessel walls are well consolidated by paddling, the collar decoration is nicely done and it’s been pretty well fired, but probably not in a really high temperature kiln.

It is 13 1/2 inches in diameter and 13 inches tall on woven ring stand/support.

Like many prehistoric pots I’m not sure if this one could stand up to direct use over a fire. If placed directly on a heat source there is a good chance that the vessel will break (called thermal shock) as portions of it heat faster than others.

That does not mean that you can only eat cold-soaked porridge with a pot like this. Stone boiling is a tried and true method of cooking without directly exposing your container or meal to the fire.

It’s the original form of slow cooking. I’ve done it and when you’re done you’ll have a new appreciation for modern ceramics (and you’ll know how to cook food in a basket or plastic bucket if you ever need to).

Warning: the thermal shock that could break a pot instead cause one’s stone boiling rocks to break, releasing little bits of rock into your food. It is incredibly important that you use well consolidated rocks to limit the number of little pieces. Whatever you use be careful that you don’t try any kind of rock that is highly porous and or is saturated with water before you heat it. They are sometimes known to explode in the fire sending sharp fire-hot projectiles flying everywhere.

In other words, cook your food like normal and if you really feel like trying this do some research and use proper safety precautions. Don’t be hasty and get hurt.

Remember it’s not always easy living low-tech and sometimes it’s dangerous.

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I’m some what prejudiced in my analysis of this pot.

Back when I was doing archaeology I became intimately familiar with what we jokingly called The Eastern Mudware Complex. That is, the prehistoric ceramics of Eastern North America.  Don’t misunderstand me, those vessels revolutionized how people lived, worked and what they ate. Unfortunately as an archaeologist in the real world what you find are broken pots subjected to a couple thousand years of frost and thaw cycles and a few hundred years of plowing. By the time we found the smashed remnants they looked like dog chow.

This is how we taught new folks to recognize prehistoric pottery: “If you have a sifting screen full of dog kibble you have just excavated a pot.” It wasn’t quite that simple, but pretty close.

Although initially looking not unlike dried dog food the prehistoric ceramics of the east coast were decorated in a variety of manners. The decorations could be analyzed to determine change over time and even the rise and decline of different cultural groups.

Basically, the manner in which one decorates a pot is learned, thereby it is cultural. Different decorative traits* and the combinations of these traits change over time, as culture changes. One of the coolest things I saw was the negative impressions of fiber perishables (textiles and cordage) in pot walls. The way one makes fabric, or even the cords in that fabric is definable in space and time.

Fingerprints were also cool to find and a blatant reminder that the artifacts were made by people and the people are what makes the past interesting, the artifacts are just a vehicle for getting there.

*Some argue that decoration is not just decorative. Extensive decorative treatment can also be functional. The application of decoration can help consolidate vessel walls and it can also make it easier for the vessel to heat uniformly, reducing the potential for catastrophic failure from thermal shock and a ruined supper.