Philippine ceramics

During the Neolithic period of the Philippines, pottery was made for water vessels, plates, cups, and for many other uses.

The clay is then pounded, added with enough amount of water, to reach the wanted flexibility, and placed in a rotating plate.

The pot, after the modeling stage, is then dried for a short period of time before the base is shaped.

Pottery Functions [4] Pots are ceramic vessels that are made by molding clay into its wanted shape and then leaving it in an environment with an elevated temperature thereby making it solid and sturdy.

In the book Pottery Function: A Use-Alteration Perspective, the author, James Skibo, reasoned out why the use of pots is far more advantageous than baskets and other organic containers.

He said that since potteries are commonly made in clay, heat has little to none effect on the container, and its contents, and that it protects the food from moisture and pests.

Furthermore, its range of storable contents is far wider than baskets and animal skins since it can store both liquid and dry goods.

Also, Rice, in his book Pottery Analysis, classified ceramic vessels into 17 categories depending on various factors that concern the use and production of the tool.

One of these is the content wherein he further divided a type of pot into four depending on the state (liquid or solid) and temperature (hot or cold) of the food inside it.

Based from these three uses that Rice gave, Skibo further characterized the usage of ceramic vessels by dividing the tool's function into two, (1) intended use and (2) actual use.

In Skibo's study of Kalinga potteries functions, he relied on three main tests, namely (1) dissolved residue, (2) surface attrition and (3) carbon deposition.

Specific varieties of decoration are as follows: Kalanay complex pottery can be divided into 16 groups according to Solheim.