I'm going to start this post off with a little scenario that I've cooked up, so just sit back and enjoy where my mediocre story-telling skills are taking you:
"Well, Jeremiah, what do you think it is?" "Um, well maybe its MM1a (Middle Modern 1a), professor?" "Jeremiah, do you read anything for this class? Of course it isn't MM, that's hundreds of years off. Clearly this falls into the EI2 (Early Ikea 2) time period. You can tell from the simplicity of the design and decoration, and the unique Swedish fabric of the ware. Yes, this is definitely Early Ikea." "But Professor, aren't all EI finds suppose to come in groups of eight?" "You should know by now that's a misconception. People thousands of years ago could have shared, or been very clumsy- that's a possible explanation for why we only have a partial set from this site." "Ooooh, I see. Is EI very rare?" "Not really, EI1 is pretty limited to finds only in Scandinavia, but we find EI2 all over the planet."
This dialogue came from some musing about what future archaeologists are going to name our pottery types (you know, how now we have EH- Early Helladic- and things like that, and how archaeologists now use types/styles of pottery to determine dates). Thinking about the pottery in my cupboards, I figure future archaeologists will be forced to name our period the Ikea Age.
Now, of course, future historians might look through that ancient moldering archive called the world wide web (since we all now that future people will be using a bigger, better, faster version of the internet, probably sponsored by Google) to look back and try to find information on our strange and distance culture. Who knows? Maybe even future academics might write their dissertations on the pervasiveness of Early Ikea 2 ware (of course, now I want to ask future archaeologists, "What does Late Ikea ware look like?! I want to know!"). Or not. I could be way off here. Maybe some time in the not-to-distant future we stop using ceramics altogether and future archaeologists will just call our time The End of Pottery...duh duh duuuunhn. What? It could happen!
"Well, Jeremiah, what do you think it is?" "Um, well maybe its MM1a (Middle Modern 1a), professor?" "Jeremiah, do you read anything for this class? Of course it isn't MM, that's hundreds of years off. Clearly this falls into the EI2 (Early Ikea 2) time period. You can tell from the simplicity of the design and decoration, and the unique Swedish fabric of the ware. Yes, this is definitely Early Ikea." "But Professor, aren't all EI finds suppose to come in groups of eight?" "You should know by now that's a misconception. People thousands of years ago could have shared, or been very clumsy- that's a possible explanation for why we only have a partial set from this site." "Ooooh, I see. Is EI very rare?" "Not really, EI1 is pretty limited to finds only in Scandinavia, but we find EI2 all over the planet."
This dialogue came from some musing about what future archaeologists are going to name our pottery types (you know, how now we have EH- Early Helladic- and things like that, and how archaeologists now use types/styles of pottery to determine dates). Thinking about the pottery in my cupboards, I figure future archaeologists will be forced to name our period the Ikea Age.
Now, of course, future historians might look through that ancient moldering archive called the world wide web (since we all now that future people will be using a bigger, better, faster version of the internet, probably sponsored by Google) to look back and try to find information on our strange and distance culture. Who knows? Maybe even future academics might write their dissertations on the pervasiveness of Early Ikea 2 ware (of course, now I want to ask future archaeologists, "What does Late Ikea ware look like?! I want to know!"). Or not. I could be way off here. Maybe some time in the not-to-distant future we stop using ceramics altogether and future archaeologists will just call our time The End of Pottery...duh duh duuuunhn. What? It could happen!
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