Earthenware pot

Title
Earthenware pot
Year/Period
500BC-500AD
Region
Lemery, Batangas Province, The Philippines
Material
Dimension
Object size: H:16.6 x Diameter of mouth:8.6 cm
Accession No.
2001-02661
Credit Line
Gift of President S.R. Nathan

This earthenware pot was made with coils, whose surface was smoothened and subsequently paddle-beaten. The outer walls appear to have been burnished – a technique that smoothens the surface and strengthens the walls of the pot. A wide range of pottery including forms such as this has been found in prehistoric burials across the Philippines, from northern Luzon to southern Mindanao. Burial jars were interred in graves, but many were also found to contain skeletal remains as well as funerary objects such as ornaments and metal tools. Such grave goods probably reflected the social status of the deceased.