Early Ceramics

Ceramics as Temporal Markers

Ceramics are generally important temporal markers for a society because they are plentiful in the archaeological record, can usually be dated with confidence, and (unlike many organic materials) are often found in a good state of preservation. Attestations of unfired and low-fired clay and eventually ceramics in the archaeological record often represent major milestones that coincide with a civilization’s development from primitive hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers, to chiefdoms, and eventually to state-level societies.

Ceramics throughout the Americas

Caral, 27 kilometers inland from the Pacific coast of Peru (about 200 kilometers north of Lima), is a preceramic urbanization. It dates to ca. 2,600 BC and is often called the earliest city in the Americas.¹ As many as 30 preceramic sites have been identified in the Huaura, Supe, Pativilca, and Fortaleza valleys in the “Norte Chico” of coastal Peru.² Complex ceramics are attested in Andean archaeology in the Chavin culture, ca. 1,700 BC.³ Watson Brake in northern Louisiana is a preceramic urbanization that dates to ca. 3,400 BC.⁴ Early ceramics are attested at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Poverty Point, Louisiana, which dates to ca. 1,700 BC.⁵ Regional trade in ceramics throughout the southeastern United States can be dated ca. 1,500 BC.

Ceramics in Mesoamerica

In Mesoamerica, early ceramics have been excavated in the Tehuacan Valley, Puebla, and the Oaxaca Valley, Oaxaca.⁶ They date to around 2,200 BC.⁷ By around 1,900 BC, complex ceramics were being thrown and fired in the Soconusco region of the Chiapas and Guatemalan coasts, including sites in Veracruz, such as San Lorenzo and La Venta.⁸ The potters who created these beautiful pieces were highly skilled.

Possible Ceramics in Jaredite History

According to the book of Ether, the Jaredite saga began at the Tower of Babel, which traditional biblical scholars have dated to ca. 2250 BC (after Noah’s flood and before Abraham).⁹ This time frame is, broadly speaking, consistent with the chronology published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its most recent edition of its scriptural canon.¹⁰ After the founding Jaredite colony left what the text describes as the “great tower” (Ether 1:3), they traveled through the wilderness and camped at a seashore for a number of years (Ether 2:14) before embarking on an epic 344-day journey across the ocean to the New World (Ether 6:11). Their first capital, Moron, was on elevated terrain,¹¹ and may have been located at or near what is known today as highland Oaxaca.¹²

The Jaredites were an advanced civilization for their era (Ether 10:22–28), which means they would likely have fired clay to produce ceramics. Textual evidence that the Jaredites were familiar with ceramic materials possibly comes from the “dish” metaphor repeated six times in Ether 2 and 6:

And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish. (Ether 2:17)

And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah … (Ether 6:7)

While this possible reference to ceramics (dishes can come from a variety of materials) could be due to Moroni’s influence on the text as its abridger, it is quite possible (and perhaps more likely) that it derives from the underlying Jaredite record itself. If so, then there is at least some evidence that the Jaredites may have had knowledge and interest in the production of ceramic materials.

It is also worth noting that ceramics sometimes held cosmic significance among the pre-Columbian Maya. For example, the following lip-to-lip bowls (AD 150–300, from structure 7, Santa Rita Corozal, Belize) which were on display at the Maya exhibit in The Natural History Museum of Utah were accompanied by the following description: “In a ‘lip-to-lip’ cache, one pottery vessel is placed upside down on another. Together, the vessels create a sealed container. When the materials inside represent the underworld, our world and the sky, the cache becomes a Maya universe in miniature.”  

If the Jaredites or Nephites attached similar cosmic importance to some sealed vessels (whether literally or figuratively sealed tight), then Moroni’s repeated emphasis on the Jaredite barges being “tight like unto a dish” may take on additional significance.

Conclusion

Descriptions of Jaredite society indicate that it was advanced enough to have developed quality ceramic materials. Although the textual evidence that the Jaredites actually produced such ceramic materials is inconclusive, it may be noteworthy that the development of ceramics in regions of Olmec influence (Oaxaca, Puebla, and later in southern Veracruz) coincides with the approximate estimated timing of the Jaredite’s arrival in the New World. Whether or not the development or perpetuation of ceramics in these regions was either partially or significantly due to Jaredite influence is, of course, unknown, but the correspondence in timing suggests a possible connection.

E. Wyllys Andrews V, George J. Bey III, & Christopher M. Gunn, “The Earliest Ceramics of the Northern Maya Lowlands” in Pathways to Complexity: A View from the Maya Lowlands, ed. M. Kathryn Brown and George J. Bey III (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2018), 49–86.

Ether 2:17 Ether 6:7, 18Ether 10:22–28

Ether 2:17

Ether 6:7, 18

Ether 10:22–28