Intro to Anthropology
Dr. Jean Marcus
November 16, 2012
Cobb Museum Paper
The Cobb Institute Museum at Mississippi State University displays items from the Old World and the New World. When I visited the museum I noticed a wide variety of artifacts. The Old world side contained pieces from many Old World countries, while the New World side featured a lot of pieces that are from local areas. Since there was such a vast number of artifacts at the Cobb Museum, I have decided to focus on the clay vessels and etchings in the Old and New World.
In the section of ceramics form Israel’s Iron Age II, there were a lot of pots and vessels. A four-room house in the Halif settlement is where the Archeologists found the pieces of ceramics. The armies of King Sennacharib from Assyria burned this settlement. Experts believe that the artifacts in this section were made around 700 B.C. (Cobb). I did not think the bottom of this pot would be able to keep the top stable considering that the top is much larger than the bottom. One pot had four handles, a flat bottom, and a very wide opening. It looked like a very practical piece of pottery. I am sure it was useful in distributing water or other substances. Another vessel in this section was a very small vase with a wide base and a single handle. It looked like it would have been used to pour water. Another piece was a very large bulb shaped piece of pottery. I believe it was also used to carry water. The lid displayed in the Israel’s Second Iron Age section was slightly different from most of the other pieces. It had small holes drilled in the top. This decoration made it stand out more than the other ones. One other piece of pottery in the area had decoration. One of the medium sized pots had lines etched around the top close to the handles. All of the other pieces were void of decorations. There were nine different vessels in this area of the museum. None were fully complete, but it was easy