Tool of history

Lynn Poole describes some pottery pieces from several different centuries and civilizations and notes how the features of the pottery are clues to their past. Dr. Gus W. Van Beek, Johns Hopkins University archaeologist, says that of written and unwritten remains, archaeology is the only source of information on civilizations before the third millennium B.C., and pottery shreds are the most common remains. On a diagram of the Hajar bin Humeid mound excavated in 1950-51, he shows how each stratum is delineated by debris and specific features. The study of these layers is called stratigraphy. Since ancient pottery styles changed readily, relative chronology of a culture can be based on these changes. For example, the ledge handles on Palestinian jars went through four stages of design change. Likewise, immigration and colonization are revealed by changes in native pottery. Use of literary sources adds to this information for dating objects in the strata as does carbon-14 dating.