The meaning of imprecision: A reconsideration of marked colonoware in South Carolina

A review of marked Colonoware recovered in South Carolina shows a very low level of precision. This lack of concern with aesthetics runs contrary to expectations for potters intent on placing important religious symbols, cosmograms, on their pots. This imprecision runs contrary to the high degree of precision evidenced in other Gullah-Geechee folk arts and crafts. It is suggested that many of the known, marked Colonoware vessels were incised or inscribed simply to identify the potter, the eventual owner, or the participant in a vessel-centered ritual.