page_title: Cord-marked pottery
section_title: Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Cord-marked pottery / Asia
caption_attribution_description: Japan; Jar; Ceramics
context_page_description: Cord-marked pottery or Cordmarked pottery is an early form of a simple earthenware pottery made in precontact villages. It allowed food to be stored and cooked over fire. Cord-marked pottery varied slightly across the world, depending upon the clay and raw materials that were available. It generally coincided with cultures moving to an agrarian and more settled lifestyle, like that of the Woodland period, as compared to a strictly hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
context_section_description: In Japan, the Jōmon period is named after its cord-marked pottery.The term Jomon was coined by Edward S. Morse who discovered corded ware at the Omori site in 1867. In Taiwan, the Fengpitou (鳳鼻頭) culture, characterized by fine red cord-marked pottery, was found in Penghu and the central and southern parts of the western side of the island, and a culture with similar pottery occupied the eastern coastal areas. Archaeologically, the prehistory of Taiwan can be subdivided into at least four major cultural sequences. From earliest to most recent, these are the Changpin culture, Tapenkeng culture (coarse corded ware culture), fine corded ware culture (red cord-marked ware culture), and the proto-historical culture. There were also the eastern cord-marked cultures of eastern, central, and southern Taiwan. Pottery of the Suntangpu culture consists mainly of jars, bowls, and basins. Three main kinds of pottery: reddish sandy pottery, orange sandy pottery, and orange clay pottery, are recognized from these red cord-marked wares. Reddish Sandy pottery characterized by red coatings and dominant pyroxene tempers is considered most characteristic of Suntangpu culture. Micro-Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and SEM-EDX can be used on corded Ware pottery to unravel mineralogical composition and can also be specifically used on red cord-marked pottery to help determine whether the same raw materials were used in the red coatings and ceramic bodies by ancient Potters.
  The cord-impressed ware, a typical ceramic industry widely distributed in the prehistoric contexts of East and Southeast Asia was first reported in the Indian context from Assam. Later on this ware has been reported from several sites of northern Vindhyas and the Gangetic valley. Considering the wide occurrences, this ware has been considered as a unique characteristic of the ceramic traditions of Neolithic-Chalcolithic culture of Eastern India. This ware has important bearings on the origin and development of the Neolithic culture of Northeast India. In certain pockets of Northeast India, there are potters’ communities whose pottery resembles well with the cord-impressed ware found in archaeological contexts. Potters of Mizoram apply a cord-wrapped paddle on the wet clay surface of the pottery. They use thick cotton threads for wrapping the beater which gives an interesting design on the outer surface of the pottery.
caption: Earthenware with cord-marked and incised decoration (Tokoshinai 5 type), Metropolitan Museum of Art
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