Spout with bands of grooves and impressions from Il Lokeridede.
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Notes on the Il Lokeridede Pillar Site


Spout exterior with bands of grooves and impressions from Il Lokeridede.
 


Other Ceramics from Il Lokeridede
white bar = 1 cm.
Sherds with internal decoration as pictured.

  This is a spout from a large open vessel or, just possibly, a funnel. The exterior decoration is alternating bands of grooves and imbricated stylus impressions. The rows of stylus impressions are diagonal and at a complementary angle to the grooves, so that together, the grooves and rows of impressions zig-zag across the surface of the vessel. If the bands ran parallel to the rim, which is the most common arrangement, then the rim would have to be at least 3 cm. above the top of the spout.

Spout interior with bands of grooves and impressions from Il Lokeridede.     The interior of this vessel is decorated with panels of grooves radiating roughly away from the spout hole. There may have been a red slip applied to the interior, but this is difficult to tell for certain because the sherd was found partially exposed and imbedded in the surface. The black material on the lower right hand part of the sherd is lichen.

Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede
 

  Gridded stylus impressions using the base of a shell, probably Melanoides tuberculata, as the stylus. Impressions are laid down from left to right.

Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede  
  This internal decoration uses rotated pocket evulsion to produce sub-triagnular pockets. This is done by rotating the around its left edge, which is kept in place, while the right edge is rotated counter-clockwise as the pocket is scooped out.
Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede  

  Gridded stylus impressions using the base of a shell, probably Melanoides tuberculata, as the stylus. Impressions are laid down from right to left.

Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede  
  Diagonal lines were first deeply cut in at a low angle so that a flat, diagonal facet was also produced across the rim surface. Then the edge of the blade was used to facet the other margin of each cut, producing producing flat-faced, diagonal ridges across the rim. The same procedure was used at right angles to the established ridges, producing faceted studs that, in the right light, look remarkably like basketry.
Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede  

  On the interior, the rim verge is decorated with deep, vertical, v-shaped grooves that articulate with the basketry pattern on the rim.


Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede
 

  Decorated in panels some of which were filled with imbricated and closely lapped impressions from something like a long fingernail, a fragment from a large snail shell, or the smooth bark from a small limb. The groove separating the panels has been made after the panel was filled with crescentic impressions.

Transverse Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede  

  The interior was decorated by taking a flat blade, inserting it vertically between 30 and 70 degrees, evulsing the clay body in the process. These were made along two axes, creating a tight zig-zag pattern. Then an implement with a circular cross section was pressed deeply into the clay, evulsing the very wet clay body and partially obliterating the original pattern.


Ripple motif body sherd from Il Lokeridede
 

  This is from a necked jar with an opening of about 2 cm. in diameter. The neck rises vertically, flares outward and then bends inward to form a pointed rim. The decoration consists of barber-pole stripes, with grooves and imbricated stylus impressions alternating. The impressions were made with a snail shell, most likely of Melanoides tuberculata.

  The bands of impressions have been treated in a most unusual way. The vessel was first grooved, slipped and burnished. Then the barber-pole stripes were outlined with shallow, narrow grooves. The bands destined to be decorated with impressions were then scraped and stippled, leaving occasional patches of burnished slip in tact near the edges of the barber stripes. The stylus was then applied. This left barber stripes of brown and red with wildly contrasting designes in them.

  This vessel is highly sophisticated in its design and execution.


Ripple motif body sherd from Il Lokeridede
 

  This vessel was burnished, then decorated, then covered with a pigmented slip. Decoration consists of floating, unbounded panels of lapped stylus impressions and bounded panels in which the both the boundary and fill are constructed of impressions using the base of a snail, probably of the species Melanoides tuberculata.


Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede
 

  This curious looking object is a tab "handle" that was applied to the exterior of a vessel, probably for the purpose of binding or suspending it. The configuration of its inner surface suggests that it may have been applied to a carinated vessel just below the shoulder.

  These additions to the outside of vessels often pop off in the course of weathering.

Ripple motif rim sherd from Il Lokeridede    

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