I finally counted the pottery shards from that dig site near Tucson

We sorted through 3,200 pieces from a Hohokam village and only 12 had any decoration on them. That means less than half a percent of their everyday bowls had patterns or paint. Does anyone else find it wild how plain most ancient household items really were?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas_brown14d ago

Whoa, hold up. Gotta push back on that math a little. 12 out of 3,200 isn't "less than half a percent" - it's actually 0.375%, which is still crazy low, but it's more like a third of a percent. Not that it changes your point much. The Hohokam definitely kept their daily stuff plain as dirt. Those decorated pieces were probably special - like serving bowls for ceremonies or gifts, not for scooping beans out of. You see the same pattern at other sites, where maybe 1-2% of the total pottery had any paint or design on it. It's a good reminder most people back then weren't making art with every meal.

sarah_hart13d ago

Same pattern with modern stuff... fancy dishes stay in the china cabinet.