We did the Roman Dodecahedron (has it really been 11 years!)
So, any guesses as to what Clayton Rings might be?
Basically, they are open ended pottery with holed discs, used by nomadic herders, that have been found in Egypt’s deserts as far as 300km away from permanent water sources and beyond the safe roaming range of any herdsman or hunter.
Cupcake cases.
More likely, cheese moulds. Place them, narrow end downward on the accompanying perforated disc, fill with curds, allow to drain, invert and remove the disc, push out the formed cheese through the open end.
What Mangetout said. That or some similar straining operation. We know they’re the product of a nomadic herding culture. Some dairy use seems most likely.
Some of the alternatives proposed, like pyrolysis ovens or portable stoves, would have left clear burn marks on the finds that we don’t see.
Since it’s a desert environment, my guess would be something to do with water. Perhaps a strainer to extract water from mud, although cloth is usually better for that. Or perhaps the clay used has some condensation property. That is, water condenses more on that type of clay than most other materials.
Yeah, that could be - maybe a piece of cloth in the bottom of the thing to cover the hole, fill the pot with sand and charcoal, then pour water through it to make it (comparatively more) drinkable
Yeah, we still use straining/draining devices of this general form today, so I think it’s pretty compelling this was a filter or colander of some sort.
A thought occured to me about this hypothesis. Surely there’d be some residue of cheese left from this use. Likely microscopic, but still there. Especially since that ceramic looks pretty rough, so lots of nooks and crannies for the residue to hide in. Of course, we don’t know if anyone has looked for that residue, but it was the first idea in the list in that article, so I expect someone has.
Some of the other ideas would probably have left residue as well.
Yeah, milk proteins in porous ceramics are surprisingly durable - there would be some evidence of it (assuming someone has checked for that)
Fascinating mystery. Has anyone proposed they were crude noisemakers / “bells” tied around the necks of the live stock?
How would that explain the holed discs? They’re too large to be a clapper.
Good question. My thinking was that a rope (no longer here) would have been strung through the discs and the larger “pot”. Having not handled or seen the objects makes this a shot in the dark. The images I’ve seen online may not fully represent the nature of these objects as well.
My guess is that they used Clayton rings the same way that I do - to raise new clay pots away from the red coals. They were pot holders - either to keep heat away from new clay or heat away from something else a fired piece might touch. The reason for the shape is because these rings are derived from excess clay. If you don’t smash it back into the pile, you can fire it as is and use it as a riser.
How does that account for the perforated discs that are always found with them as a set?
Detecting milk residues (both proteins and lipids) off Prehistoric pottery has been all the rage for a while now, with far-reaching results. Also, research is not only at presence / absence level: Curd and whey separation indicating cheese production has been detected from at least as far back as c. 5 000 years in Europe.
I don’t know if Clayton rings have been analyzed for milk residues. Quick googling seems to hint that no.
In pottery, we call those “cookies” and they are used in the same way. Your pots cannot touch the ground when they are hot - not even in the kiln. But, if I were in the dessert, I could also use it to fill the cylinder with hot coals and place a small pot on top for cooking. Sand is a perfect heat conductor. I could drop the disk inside the cylinder to lower the heat and pull it out with a sharp object as needed. These are tools and they were probably used in more than one way in that time. They are certainly used in mine. I never throw out excess clay that is in a good shape for using it as a tool later. I smooth it up a bit and fire it. Very handy.
I’ve never seen kiln cookies with a perforation, myself. They’re always just simple discs, or those weird trivet-shaped things (disc with some triangles on top)
Ahhhhh, they were used to make dodecahedrons.
You’d eat the cookies?
Any pictures of the perforated disks? Sounds much like a colander. Many possible purposes, but something associated with cheese making is reasonable. among many other possibilities. If you found a modern colander a couple of thousand years from now you wouldn’t be able to narrow it’s purpose down to just one function.
No, a single perforation. Like this:
