Comparative Clay Analysis and Curation for Archaeological Pottery Studies (original) (raw)
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The success of pottery provenance studies is fundamentally dependent upon spatially patterned variation in the composition of exploited clay resources. Uniformity in clay composition within a region and recognizable differences between regions of interest are essential requirements for determining provenance, but these parameters are difficult to satisfy in study areas such as the coastal plain of the southeastern USA in which chemical and mineralogical variation tend toward continuous gradients. In an attempt to improve the reliability and validity of pottery provenance studies in the area, this research investigates compositional variation in raw clay samples from across Florida and southern Georgia through NAA (n=130) and petrographic analysis (n=99). The results indicate that fourteen distinct compositional regions can be differentiated, ranging from 50 km to 400 km in length. These regions dictate the direction and minimum distance a pottery vessel must have been transported in order to be recognized as nonlocal through compositional analysis. The validity of the proposed compositional regions is supported by previous case studies focused on assemblages from three of the regions. In each case, vessels were transported from other compositional regions more than 100 km away.
The ceramic ecology of florida: compositional baselines for pottery provenance studies
STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, 2015
The success of pottery provenance studies is fundamentally dependent upon spatially patterned variation in the composition of exploited clay resources. Uniformity in clay composition within a region and recognizable differences between regions of interest are essential requirements for determining provenance, but these parameters are difficult to satisfy in study areas such as the coastal plain of the southeastern USA in which chemical and mineralogical variation tend toward continuous gradients. In an attempt to improve the reliability and validity of pottery provenance studies in the area, this research investigates compositional variation in raw clay samples from across Florida and southern Georgia through NAA (n=130) and petrographic analysis (n=99). The results indicate that fourteen distinct compositional regions can be differentiated, ranging from 50 km to 400 km in length. These regions dictate the direction and minimum distance a pottery vessel must have been transported in order to be recognized as nonlocal through compositional analysis. The validity of the proposed compositional regions is supported by previous case studies focused on assemblages from three of the regions. In each case, vessels were transported from other compositional regions more than 100 km away.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2019
Fine-grained “chalky” pottery containing microscopic sponge spicules is commonly recovered from archaeological sites throughout peninsular Florida, but many questions remain about its composition and origins. It is identified by different names, but most are associated with the St. Johns Type series. While it has been commonly assumed to originate in the St. Johns River drainage for which it is named, the prevalence of pottery with these characteristics in other locations has presented the likelihood of independent production in multiple places. In this study, we conducted LA-ICP-MS and XRD analysis of spiculate pottery from three Woodland period (ca. 1000 BCE to 1000 CE) sites, along with comparative clay samples, in order to characterize the raw materials and determine the geographic scope of production. Our results support the theory that this ware was independently produced across peninsular Florida. We further evaluate the hypothesis that this pottery was made with common wetland muck, through consideration of the material properties of muck constituents. This project emphasizes the importance of an ecosystem framework for understanding the long history of spiculate pottery production and its geographic spread within Florida.
Pottery Technology and Chronology at the Fox Lake Sanctuary, Area Six, Brevard County, Florida
This paper examines the prehistoric ceramics from the Fox Lake Sanctuary, an archaeological locale associated with the Malabar Tradition (ca. 500 B.C.—A.D. 1565) of the Indian River Region of east-central Florida. At the Fox Lake Sanctuary, St. Johns Plain pottery comprise the majority of the assemblages and decorated sherds are rare. However, radiometric assays from one site in the Sanctuary indicate a Late Prehistoric occupation dating to the Malabar II Period (ca. A.D. 750-1565). Traditionally, St. Johns Check Stamped pottery is thought to be temporally diagnostic of Late Prehistoric (St. Johns II or Malabar II Period) sites in this region, and sherds of this type would comprise a greater quantity of the assemblage; nevertheless, the ceramics from the Fox Lake Sanctuary exemplify the ubiquity of plain pottery at many Malabar II Period sites, illustrating a trend that is becoming recognized as characteristic of archaeological sites associated with the Malabar Tradition within the Indian River Region. The pottery assemblages from three sites within the Fox Lake Sanctuary are analyzed to assess typological variation in assemblage composition, as well as formal and morphological variation in the technological attributes of rim sherds. The analysis is framed within the orientation of practice theory advocated by previous research on technological style, and aims to identify technological variation in accordance (or discordance) with temporal boundaries and the social affiliations of potters. As an analytical focus in this case study, technological style is conceptualized as observable variation in attributes related to the technical aspects of pottery manufacture rather than aesthetic aspects. This method of characterizing variability in prehistoric ceramic technology will assist ongoing efforts to refine the regional Malabar Period chronology of the Indian River Region, in addition to having the potential to elucidate differences in communities of potters from varying social backgrounds and cultural affiliations.
Excavations at La Villa: Continuity and Change at an Agricultural Village, 2015
This is the first of two chapters that discuss the pottery recovered during recent excavations at La Villa, AZ T:12:148 (ASM). This collection was recovered from features in Madison Street and 13th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. A total of 14,103 sherds, representing a minimum of 3,819 vessels, were recovered from features located in five spatially demarcated areas. Painted Hohokam ceramic types comprise 25.1 percent of the sherds, red ware 1.4 percent, extrabasinal painted types 0.03 percent, plain ware 73.2 percent, and sherds of indeterminate ware 0.3 percent. The earliest painted Hohokam type present is Estrella Red-on-gray, the latest is Late Sacaton Red-on-buff, and, with the exception of Middle Sacaton 2 Red-on-buff, every intervening ceramic type is represented in the collection; all are well-illustrated. Limited use of the project area during the Classic period was documented in the current collection by the recovery of one Pinto, Gila, or Cliff Polychrome sherd. Interaction with people living in other portions of the Southwest is documented by the recovery of four extrabasinal ceramic types: Deadmans Black-on-red Ware from the San Juan River region of southeastern Utah/southwestern Colorado; Kiatuthlanna Black-on-white Ware from east-central Arizona/west-central New Mexico; Black Mesa or Sosi black-on-white Ware from northeastern Arizona; and Mogollon Red Ware from the mountain valleys and uplands on either side of the Arizona-New Mexico border. The polychrome sherd mentioned previously may also have been made elsewhere. The La Villa ceramic analysis focused on three issues: (1) feature and context dating; (2) change through time; and (3) evidence of ceramic production or exchange. The second and third issues are closely related and make extensive use of temper provenance and related data. Subsistence practices, as reflected in the metric and morphological vessel function data, primarily relate to the second research issue. The final portion of the chapter examines ceramic variability related to clay type, temper source, presence/absence of calcium carbonate, firing temperature and atmosphere, as well as the concentration and intensity of Middle Sacaton buff ware production.
Archaeometry, 2007
A lack of mineralogical variation characterizes the prehistoric pottery in the uplands of central Arizona. Virtually all of the ceramics in that region were tempered with phyllite, which has previously precluded provenance analyses and the investigation of pottery production and distribution in the upland zone. As shown with assays with an electron microprobe, however, both the clay fraction and the temper fragments are chemically diverse and geographically distinct, allowing many of the phyllite-tempered wares to be sourced, thereby leading to models about the organization of ceramic production and exchange in the upland zone north of the Phoenix Basin.
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2008
Excavations at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex in Georgia produced a voluminous assemblage of St. Simons pottery and a small amount of pottery that appears to be of the Thom's Creek type. Known mainly from South Carolina, Thom's Creek ceramics have not been found this far south along the Georgia Coast (Williams and Thompson 1999:125-126). In this study, we investigate whether the ceramics found at Sapelo are more closely related to South Carolina wares or the local St. Simons type. To address this question, we used petrographic point counting and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) characterization techniques on a sample of sherds from both South Carolina and Georgia sites. This pilot study addresses the viability of these techniques for the sourcing of Late Archaic (4200-3000 BP) ceramics and the nature of hunter-gatherer cultural interaction on the southeastern coast of the United States.
Theory, Sampling, and Analytical Techniques in the Archaeological Study of Prehistoric Ceramics
American Antiquity, 1993
How archaeologists analyze pottery is determined by archaeological theory, sampling considerations, and available analytical techniques. The most damaging impediment to methodological advance is lack of a theory of how patterns of ceramic variation are generated. It is argued herein that Darwinian evolutionary theory (or selectionism) provides a body of concepts capable of explaining patterned variation and specifies measurements to make in testing specific explanatory statements. Most existing analytical procedures (e.g., the "Type-Variety" system) are regarded as aspects of sampling, the role of which is to help reduce some of the bewildering heterogeneity in ceramic collections before attempting to measure evolutionarily significant variation. Technical analysis, often considered the domain of nonarchaeological specialists, actually produces the measurements needed to test explanatory statements made about pottery observed in the archaeological record.