Let's all think aliens

[Eric Friedericks]

I got home tonight and checked my email and this was in it:

_________________

Dear Eric,

 

I am a writer working on a Science Fiction novel and I need the perspective of a potter. I hope that you will take a few minutes and help me.

 

A group of humans from what is now Turkey (Malatya specifically) were abducted by aliens in 119 AD. It was a political stunt on the part of a corrupt politician among the species that took them. The humans are deposited on a planet with no native sentient population. A mostly evergreen forest is all around them for as far as they can see.

 

The species that took them have left them some compressed rations. Imagine energy bars. They need to take care of themselves. For that they need cooking and eating vessels. Pottery ones were among the normal ones on Earth. An entire village was taken. Among the people taken were potters. They have their skills and experience, but not their equipment and materials.

 

Might it be possible for me to have them build up a structure out of the native clay and fire it with a hot fire inside it to serve as a kiln?

 

What challenges might they have?

 

Given industrious and skilled potters, how long might it take?

 

Can I have them be successful without someone who knows pottery go "There is no way they would have been able to do that!"

 

By the way, in the end the humans fight for, and win, their freedom. The world to which they had been taken was a fertile one. They had their families with them. They were free from Rome. They stayed. Now, in the present, their descendants have done rather well for themselves. I will probably have them still do pottery, just a humans on Earth today do. One of my wife's most prized possessions is a large pottery salad bowl.

 

I would appreciate any insights you can give me. I found a Turkish archaeologist who grew up around Malatya who has advised me on the area and place names. A famous geologist told me where my maker of obsidian blades could find obsidian in Turkey. A modern obsidian worker in Oregon has told me what is possible and even where to put calluses and cuts on the obsidian worker's hands. A famous heart surgeon has consulted on a woman that I need to be weak, but surgically fixable. I have a midwife who will guide me through the last birth before leaving Earth and the first on Borea 2. I have enormous files on historical detail. I will not waste anything you send me.

 

Thanks for anything you can tell me.

_________________

I thought I might as well spread this brainstorming opportunity around... I can forward on whatever you send me.

Eric

[Des & Jan Howard]

Eric
Some notes, not an essay.
1. Must haves. Clay/clay-like material. Source of high
heat, sufficient to mature to whatever standard
whatever material is found. Source of fuel, evergreen
forests don't come cut into usable pieces, so initially
windfall branches/twigs/leaves/needles, scrub, grasses.
2. If the potters were dumped on a coral atoll, they're
stuffed, no clay, look for coconut or calabash
analogues, cooking can be done by lining holes in
ground with animal skins & dropping in very hot rocks.
Clay doesn't need to be fired for some uses, woven
baskets lined with raw clay.
3. No mention of transport or draught animals, so only
use very local materials.
4. If dumped on a river delta as in the Netherlands,
alluvial or sedimentary clay, low-firing. Possibly
small trees & scrub for fuel, tin oxide & cobalt were
imported.
5. If loess country like North China possibly higher
firing clay, very iron-ey, oxidation firing, maybe coal
beds with proto-porcelain & porcelain clay seat earths.
River mud & wood ash make good glazes. Coal ash higher
in silica, less fusible.
6. Kilns are not necessary in first generation
potteries, pots stacked covered with shards (from early
failures), fired with scrub & grasses, manure,
African/Native American.
7. The area the potters came from would/may have had
Grecian influence on the work made, certainly Roman, so
redware of some sort most likely.
8. Ware made would initially be basic survival items,
cartage, storage, cooking, eating, lighting, possibly
votive.
9. Tie-in with metal producers/workers, hard to do that
sort of production without potters for crucibles,
moulds, materials. US colonial iron furnaces built from
sandstone blocks.
10. Time frame. Assuming Mediterranean climate,
locating clay-ish material, first pots fired in
grass/scrub stack within 3 weeks. First Roman style
kiln 3 years. I don't envisage much change for next
50-100 years.
11. Without input from world-at-large I don't see a
high civilisation developing & I'm a manic optimist.
Among the villagers have some 20-25 year Roman military
retirees with their experiences of the world as a
knowledge base.
Des

--
Des & Jan Howard
Lue Pottery
Lue NSW
Australia
2850

02 6373 6419
www.luepottery.hwy.com.au
-32.656072 149.840624

[rickma...@comcast.net]

Off the top of my head....

 

Certain areas of Turkey have micaceous clays that withstand heat quite well after firing with bark and scraps ( Sorkun Village Ceramics using local clay and a burro to carry the clay back to the work area  http://books.google.com/books?id=gr_1TAk0qvwC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=sorkun+village+pottery&source=bl&ots=yCw6FN-er8&sig=vrGnhL7t-w1HGkgK_AO4XJIo_jo&hl=en&ei=XqkBS4y9FZGwsgO4tdSeCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sorkun%20village%20pottery&f=false) and are used to cook over an open fire after curing with oil and heating once. the clay could be made into bricks and fired in situ to create a low temperature kiln.  ARch brick could be molded  and fired so an arch top is not out of the question.  In Sorkun tools are quite simple a turntable and some ribs and cloth are all that is used.   a rudimentary turn table could be made from two shallow bowls, the bottom one upside down and the other right side up  like this but rotated 90 degrees )(

 

Rick

[Eric Friedericks]

Very good stuff. My first thought was they better find clay and test the firing range of it..

I'll forward this stuff along.

Eric

[Lee]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Eric Friedericks
<ejfrie...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Very good stuff. My first thought was they better find clay and test the
> firing range of it..
>
> I'll forward this stuff along.

Yes, if we knew more about the geology of their new home, it would be helpful.

--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift." -- Albert Einstein