I found a pottery shard in the mountains.

[mix]

It is thin, has a slight curve, and is about 2 by 3 inches, and of course jagged.

The outer surface of the shard is blackened while the inner is rust colored, or looks like any piece of dried pottery would.

I wonder if it is old or recent. The clay is filled with tiny pebbles, so it does not seem to be commercially made.

[mwdem]

1. I found one a few years ago while hiking at Ghost Ranch.

It was clay colored and curved, and looks old. I treasure it.

[mix]

2. The forests around here have had a lot of trees cut down,

mostly during the early 20th century for railroad ties. Most has grown back, but even in very remote areas with thick timber there are still stumps and the remains of logger camps. So it is hard to know if this shard is new or old since there are so many artifacts from those days. It looks like it might have been used for warming something since the outside is blackened. And like I said in the OP, the clay has small rocks in it which might indicate its antiquity.

[mwdem]

8. I wish I knew.

My husband grew up fishing in the Pecos, btw. We go out every chance we get. You can find books on this. Geez, I even took pottery! We were just out there a couple of weeks ago. A friend has a house in the mtns. off of Santa Fe trail dr. I love it.

[Brickbat]

3. I think God probably put it there to mess with you.

[mix]

4. More likely a forest nymph. nt

[Brickbat]

6. Even better!

[MiddleFingerMom]

5. !!!

.
.
.
.:thumbsup:
.
.
.

[dawg]

7. I collect native american artifacts ...

Pottery shards are pretty common. I have boxes of them, but I still think it's really neat to find one. If there is no discernable glaze, then it's probably native american.

I love to hold things like that and think about the people, long, long ago, who made and used that pot. I like the feeling of connection to someone in the distant past.

(They are the coolest when they have swirly designs etched into the clay.)

[mix]

9. There is no glaze on it.

I was riding (on horseback) in a remote canyon yesterday, weaving between the trees trying to find a way out, when it caught my eye. There are a lot of old logger camps with rusty cans all over the mountain, so I initially assumed it was logger refuse. But it seems handmade. I imagine it might have been used to warm water or some other liquid over a fire. It has a very straight line on its interior side, but even this seems done by hand, not machine. There are no other designs.

[WolverineDG]

10. what color is it & is the surface smooth?

And you said you were in a canyon---in the NM/AZ/CO/UT area?

I did a session at an archaeological center in Colorado & one thing we found a lot of on digs was pottery.

dg

[mix]

11. In Pecos, NM

The outer side is gray in areas and blackened mostly. The inside is a rust clay color. The edges are about 1/6 of an inch thick, maybe less and have many small pebbles and such in them, if that makes sense. In the valley here is the Cicuye or Pecos Pueblo ruins, so pottery chards are common. But this one I found way up in the mountains above the valley, which are thickly forested, and about ten miles from the pueblo.

The outside surface is smoother than the inside, but both are still rough.

[WolverineDG]

12. Probably some sort of grayware

It *might* be Anasazi, as that does not have a smooth surface, but it might not be. Does the surface look like cuneiform & is it bumpy or corrugated? :) (hope that makes sense) Grayware is very common, used for cooking. More likely it is Hopi grayware, & more recent than Anasazi.

dg

[mix]

13. This is Anasazi country, Hopis are farther west.

There is no design, just the rough texture of the pottery, though the outer side is smoother, and a straight line inside that looks handmade.

[WolverineDG]

14. there would be no design on cookware

it was too common. and I'm trying to remember which surface would be less smooth---they somehow discovered that an unsmooth surface increased the cooking area & got what was inside hotter faster & kept it hotter longer. :)

can you take a pic & post it? :)

dg

[bluedigger]

15. A picture is worth a thousand words...

You can place a quarter next to it to provide scale...

I'm don't know much about Southwest pottery but...

The course material you see in the body of the shard is temper. Usually (except for really, really old stuff before they figured it out) crushed shell, small gravels, or even ground up shards from other vessels is mixed into the clay to provide more strength to the vessel after firing. It seems counterintuitive, but you don't really want an evenly ground material (clay) for the body.

(Professional ethics require me to assume you were not on public property when you recovered your find, because of course it is a crime to remove artifacts from federal property.)

[mix]

17. I'll post a picture this evening.

I don't even own a camera, strangely enough, but I can borrow one.

I found it on private land.

[denbot]

16. The black could be the glaze, or the remnants of pinon pitch for water proofing.

I don't pick up, or especially take home pottery shards but I've seen my share of early puebloian pottery. Water caches were not as ornate and coated with pitch to seal in moisture, ceremonial pottery usually has intricate designs.

Pecos is in the region of the early pueblo peoples and pottery from the oldest period 750-900 AD, was gray, and occasionally red clay with plain white or black coloring. Take the shard to your local community college, a professor would probably have a good idea of it's age and who produced it.

[mix]

18. I think I will return it.

I'll be going for another ride at the ranch this afternoon and the trail up to the canyon is spectacular.

I am sure it is puebloan from the research I've done, but I do not feel it would ethical for me to keep it as interesting as it is.

[bluedigger]

19. That's cool.

I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable earlier. They really are next to valueless, other than to archaeologists and those who identify with them from a spiritual/cultural sense. And there are boxes full of them for sale in the tourist shops. A picture would still be nice. :hi:

[mix]

20. I took it back yesterday.

I had not noticed before, but the area is covered with shards. Few on the ranch had ever really been back into that canyon before, which is really steep and barely accessible, so it should remain undisturbed. Getting back up there on horseback was a little difficult since we had rains the day before, but it's done and I feel better about it.

[Steerpike]

21. Thank you

that is the correct thing to do

[mix]

22. I don't know exactly why,

but it was a very emotional experience.

[UTUSN]

23. It doesn't say, "Made in Chna"?!1 n/t