Crushed Pottery Temper Ceramics

Temper can be bought found or made of many different possible materials.

Crushed pottery temper ceramics.

Foreign material sand plant fibers grit shell crushed rock broken pottery added to clay for potterymaking to improve its firing qualities and prevent a vessel from cracking during the drying process. Grog or crushed potsherd temper variable pottery series cross section of grog tempered sherd thin section of grog tempered sherd width of image 2 5mm. 1000c e when the material became the dominant temper in ceramics over much. Substance in clay that modifies its properties when wet or dry as well as during and after firing rice 1987 407 mixing of additives including other clays with clay to produce a body for pottery making rye 1976 109.

Some clays are self tempered that is naturally contain enough mica sand or sponge spicules that they do not require additional tempering. Because clay was secured in large amounts and often stored in a pit it would dry out and then had to be broken apart and crushed before it could be. Peacock 1968 declared that group a malvernian rock fabric was a tempered one. All signs point to this being absolutely correct.

In north america the use of crushed mussel shell as temper first began millennia ago but increased dramatically at ca. Pure kaolin clay does not require tempering. Aboriginal pottery tempered with bone has been found at many prehistoric protohistoric and historic sites in south and central texas. I have made temper from aquarium gravel that i crushed down to an appropriate size crushed shells old broken pottery that i have pulverized down into little pieces sometimes even coarse sand.

Some clays used to make pottery do not require the addition of tempers. Temper reduces plasticity which would cause shrinkage or cracking upon drying and firing. Adding temper to the clay the clay must then be washed to remove any debris and kneaded repeatedly to achieve the proper consistency and quality removing any air bubbles before shaping a pot. Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the mississippian culture 800 to 1600 ce found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the american midwest and southeast.

It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine or more rarely marine shell tempering agents in the clay paste shell tempering is one of the hallmarks of mississippian cultural practices.