Jigsaw – Reconstructing the Ruisasi 1 Incised Pot

Abstract

While undertaking a detailed conjoin study of sherds from Ruisasi 1, an archaeological site located along the Caution Bay coastal plain, 19 variably weathered sherds were found to belong to one incomplete incised pot. This article details the incised pot and explores what conjoining and reconstruction of this vessel can tell us about the vessel’s manufacture, fragmentation, deposition and the sherd deposit at Ruisasi 1. The site was excavated in 2010, revealing at depth a large number of highly fragmented ceramics. By examining the conjoining sherds from the incised pot, it is possible to work out whether the deposit formed as a single, archaeologically instantaneous event or as a gradual accumulation of more or less different depositional events.