Common use of Firing Clause in Contracts

Firing. All cooking pots have been fired at rather low temperatures. Partly this is due to the kind of non-plastic inclusions used: when calcite is heated to too high a temperature (above approximately 700 °C), the pot will disintegrate. In other pots not tempered with calcite, for which a low firing temperature is technically not necessary, the low firing temperature may be related to a general tradition or idea about the desired colour and look of a cooking pot. Low firing temperatures yield dark, brownish surface colours. A relatively very high proportion of 26.8% of all fragments shows traces of burning. Mostly these traces were found on the outside surface or, less often, on both the in and the outside surface of the (rim) sherd. The high proportion of sherds with burning traces supports the identification of these vessels as cooking pots used over or in a fire. No information about any residues or contents is available. This is probably mainly due to the fact that most are rather small rim fragments. For several pots it was recorded that the inside surface was very damaged. Perhaps this was caused by stirring with a hard tool? The outer base surface of P93-308 is also abraded by use; this probably was the part that would be standing in the fire. The cooking pots studied in thin section (see Appendix D) show that tiny cracks between the larger inclusions in the clay, resulting from repeated heating and cooling, can make a cooking pot unusable or cause it to break (see also Chapter VI). P93-308 was found in the fill of a small hearth or oven (Y) in square K9, which supports its identification as a cooking pot. The room contained more of these ovens, as well as other vessels with a special shape, including “pilgrim flasks” and bowls with a spout and handles, and was tentatively identified as the staff kitchen (▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ in press).