Sedentary Period Ceramic Production and Distribution: New Evidence from the Julian Wash Site, AZ BB:13:17 (ASM) (original) (raw)
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Interpreting Silent Artefacts: Petrographic Approaches to Archaeological Ceramics. , 2009
Although many students of Hohokam archaeology have argued that ceremonies held at ballcourt villages facilitated the movement of goods, most have found it easier to make that assertion than to prove it. Here compositional analyses of sand-tempered Middle Rincon phase (ca. A.D. 1000 - 1100) ceramics and direct evidence of pottery production are used to identify three villages that specialized in the manufacture of red-slipped, red-on-brown, and polychrome wares that were distributed widely throughout the Tucson Basin. Regression analysis of spatial patterning in the temper provenance data, and associated statistical tests, supports the inference that a significant amount of exchange occurred at sites with ballcourts.
Heidke and Ryan 2020 Sedentary Period Pottery from the West Branch Site, AZ AA:16:3 (ASM)
Results of Phase 2 Data Recovery at the Southern Margin of the West Branch Site, AZ AA:16:3 (ASM), Pima County, Arizona, 2020
"Sedentary Period Pottery from the West Branch Site, AZ AA:16:3 (ASM): Provenance and Function" presents evidence regarding part-time, household-based, community specialization in the manufacture of hand-built plain brown, red-slipped, red-on-brown, and polychrome pottery at the West Branch site during the Sedentary period (ca. A.D. 950 - 1150) and compares data from that collection with similar information collected from two villages located nearby. Direct and indirect evidence of production are reviewed and inferred vessel functions are discussed.
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.
Classic Period Pottery from the Yuma Wash Site: Dating, Provenance, and Function
Archaeological Investigations at the Yuma Wash Site and Outlying Settlements, Part 2
This chapter discusses the pottery recovered from excavations at Yuma Wash site Loci AA:12:122, AA:12:311, and AA:12:312, and the associated canal site, AZ AA:12:1047 (ASM), that produced a total of 40,302 sherds, representing at least 4,601 vessels. Ceramic types indicate a long period of use in the project area beginning as early as the Agua Caliente phase (A.D. 50 - 500) and continuing into the Historic period. The data confirm earlier findings that indicated the most intensive period of use at the Yuma Wash site occurred during the Tanque Verde (A.D. 1150 - 1300) and Tucson (A.D. 1300 - 1450) phases. Most of the recovered pottery was produced in the Tucson Basin. However, interaction with people living in other parts of southern Arizona is documented by the recovery of small numbers of Hohokam red-on-buff and Gila Red sherds from the middle Gila River area, San Carlos Red-on-brown, San Carlos Red, and San Carlos Brown ware pottery from the Safford Basin and the San Pedro River Valley, and Sells Red sherds from the Papaguería. Long-distance ties with populations in east-central Arizona/west-central New Mexico area are also indicated by the presence of Cibola White Ware and Mogollon Indented Corrugated pottery. The chapter is organized into three main sections. The first section summarizes the project’s attribute analysis methods. The second section describes the results of a ceramic analysis of feature contexts. The third section reports the findings of numerous ceramic attribute analyses. Four topics are addressed in that section: (1) indirect and direct evidence of ceramic production,( 2) vessel form and function, (3) modified, or “worked,” sherds, and (4) figurines and other fired clay objects. Finally, correspondence analyses of provenance data collected from numerous Tucson area sites are used to develop a preliminary, regional perspective on Classic period pottery economics.
Diverse types of analysis and interpretive goals have been applied to aboriginal ceramics in the California deserts. This brief discussion focuses specifically on vessel forms as clues to functional patterns in the archaeological landscapes, and the contributions that can potentially be made at the level of field observations and basic laboratory analysis. Some previous approaches seem to suffer from poor replicability, too limited applicability, interpretive sterility, and/or insufficient documentation. An alternative focus on a small number of simple, relatively well-defined, and interpretively significant attributes is proposed. A few thoughts are offered here concerning the ways in which evidence from prehistoric ceramics is being generated and used in the California deserts region. First, the scope needs to be narrowed down a little: • There is a considerable range in general kinds of ceramic artifacts in this region, including pipes, figurines, rattles, anvils, and scoops, among others. The discussion here is just concerned the most abundantly represented kind of ceramics: pottery vessels, such as ollas, jars, bowls, canteens, and trays. • A considerable range of kinds of analyses have been applied to local pottery. Those analyses include studies of clays and inclusions (petrography, x-ray fluorescence, neutron activation analysis), manufacturing techniques (shaping by paddle-and-anvil vs. coil-and-scrape, firing in oxidizing vs. reducing atmospheres), residues (charcoal, cross-over immunoelectrophoresis), decoration (painting, incising, punctation, burnishing, appliqué), and physical dating (radiocarbon, luminescence). This discussion is limited to the vessels' forms. • Research objectives that have been addressed through local ceramic analyses include chronology, ethnic identity, patterns of mobility and exchange, and technology. The emphasis here is on the usefulness of this evidence to interpret site functions, and beyond those local functions to infer settlement patterning or landscape archaeology. • Finally, there are two main approaches to describing and classifying the results of ceramic analyses: classification by types, and classification by attributes. In previous papers it has been argued that there are serious drawbacks in the overuse or premature use of typologies (Laylander 2009, 2010; Laylander and Schaefer 2014; Schaefer and Laylander 2014). Those arguments are not repeated here, but the primary focus is on attributes and the choices made concerning which attributes to document and analyze. Malcolm J. Rogers and Michael R. Waters created typologies of vessel forms. Rogers did
Journal of Anthropological …, 2002
Archaeologists often stress the importance of sedentism, large population sizes, and the economy of scale in the development of ceramic technologies worldwide. Yet pottery-making is known among many mobile and small-scale societies that make only small numbers of pots. Unfortunately, we know very little about how this technology was organized in such societies. Using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis we explore how pottery production, distribution, and consumption was organized within one such group, the Numa (i.e., Paiute and Shoshone) of the southwestern Great Basin. Results suggest that pots were produced and used locally, that exchange of pots was minimal, and that production was organized at an individual or family level. The creation of regional distribution networks by specialized potters, as proposed by Julian Steward (1933) is not supported. As a result we also question the importance of an economy of scale of pottery production in this particular case.