via The Manila Bulletin, 07 January 2023: Reflections by a Philippine archaeologist
As archaeologists, we deal with material culture, materials created by man in the past that have survived the test of time. My area of specialization is ceramics or, to be specific, prehistoric decorated earthenware pottery. When we study pottery, we look at form, decoration, and technology. We investigate how its technology has been handed down or how such technology was used—and why.
We attempt to determine the choice of clay used, the kinds of materials added to the clay to create good, sturdy pots, the technique used to form the vessel, the choice of vessel form to create, which might have helped determine the use of the vessel and, in some cases, even what type of decoration was used, just to name a few.
