Ceramic Vessel Size Estimation from Sherds: An Experiment and a Case Study
Michael E. Whalen · Journal of Field Archaeology · 1998
Archaeologists who deal with highly fragmented ceramic assemblages face the challenging task of estimating the morphological characteristics of the parent vessels from their sherds. Container volume is especially difficult to estimate in the absence of whole vessels or major reconstructible sherds. Recent studies have proposed several approaches to vessel size estimation from sherds, ranging from trigonometric calculations to multidimensional modeling. This paper applies a simple variant of maximum diameter estimation to a simulated assemblage of sherds from vessels of known size and to a prehistoric sherd assemblage. Despite its simplicity, the analysis is able to recognize for the first time a pattern of change in the sizes of some ceramic containers during the first millennium A. C. in western Texas. The approach should be useful in any context worldwide where assemblages of roughly spherical ceramics succeed each other and where these vessels are extensively fragmented.