Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (567 page)

A flat-topped horizontal turntable that can be rotated to assist a potter in shaping a ceramic vessel. Slow-turning wheels or tournettes were used from the 5th or 6th millennia
bc
in the Near East to help true up hand-made vessels. From the early 4th millennium
bc
, however, fast wheels began to be introduced. Using a fast wheel a potter could centre a piece of clay while the wheel was spinning and then fashion the desired form of the vessel. The technique is still used today. Fast wheels may be powered by simply kicking a stone or wooden fly-wheel attached to the bottom of a spindle connected to the wheel-head (so-called ‘kick-wheel’) by using a treadle, or in more recent times by attaching an independent power source. Fast wheels began to be used in
MINOAN
Crete about 2500 bc, and were used in Britain by about 100 bc. Potter's wheels were not used in the Americas until after European colonization.

 
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Clay that has been fashioned into a desired shape and then dried to reduce its water content before being fired or baked to fix its form. At temperatures of about 400°C water begins to be lost from the molecules forming the clay and at this point the clay cannot be returned to a plastic state through rehydration. At around 1000°C the clay molecules begin to fuse, and at higher temperatures still the minerals vitrify into a solid mass.
Pottery is made in many different ways either by hand or using a
POTTER'S WHEEL
. Because of the widespread availability of usable clay, pottery was independently invented in many parts of the world at different times.

 
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In medieval and later times in Britain, an enclosure into which stray animals that damaged crops or contravened manor court regulations could be corralled. A fee had to be paid to extract stock impounded in this way.

 
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Late Archaic Stage ceremonial or communal gathering place on the Macon Ridge overlooking the Mississippi floodplain near the confluence of six rivers. The site comprises a large earthwork some 1.8km across and is composed of six individual embankments. It is semi-circular in plan, each of the six concentric earthworks being arranged in five segments. The open side of the earthwork enclosure is closed by the line of the river. The concentric earthworks are set 40m apart, each being capped with midden deposits up to 1m thick. It has been estimated that about 3 million work-hours would be needed to construct these earthworks, but their purpose is not known.
In the centre is a massive plaza in and around which were found numerous pieces of burnt clay of unknown function. Several mounds are also present at the site, the largest 21m high and 183m across.
[Rep.: J. A. Ford and C. H. Webb , 1956,
Poverty Point: A late Archaic site in Louisiana
. New York: American Museum of Natural History; J. L. Gibson , 1974, Poverty Point, the first native American chiefdom.
Archaeology
, 27, 96–105]

 
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Late Archaic Stage hunting–gathering–farming communities flourishing in and around the lower Mississippi Basin in the period 1700–700 bc. Named after the type-site at Poverty Point, Mississippi. Distinctive material culture includes clay balls, an elaborate microlithic industry, occasional clay figurines, and baked clay vessels. Extensive trade networks are suggested by the presence of steatite vessels and the limited use of copper among other luxuries. The subsistence base was dependent on hunting, the exploitation of riverine resources, and some cultivation of native plants.

 
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Powell , John Wesley
(1834–1902)
[Bi].