The sherd above features cord marking, a surface decoration which involves pressing vegetal cordage or basketry into damp pottery.  Since the archaeological record of San Diego County rarely includes preserved textiles, these impressions are an important source of information about…

Pottery is the first synthetic material that humans made. Essentially artificial stone, pottery is a mixture of clay, water, and temper, transformed by the application of heat. Pottery first appears in the archaeological record of San Diego about 1,000 years…