Thoughts on Research Methods: 30 Falsifiable Hypotheses about Lowland Patayan Ceramics (original) (raw)
Related papers
Lowland Patayan Pottery: A History, Crisis, and Manifesto
California Archaeology, 2021
Archaeologists working in the far western Southwest distinguish the Lowland Patayan tradition by virtue of a distinctive, typically undecorated, light-colored pottery found along the lower Gila and lower Colorado rivers and in surrounding deserts. Known generally as “Lower Colorado Buff Ware,” research into Lowland Patayan pottery has a convoluted history, including the formulation of multiple typologies that are incompatible and whose chronologies contradict each other. This article discusses this history and critically evaluates the prevailing typology to expose some of its shortcomings. It also presents some data amassed over the past 40 years to show that the chronology girding it is inaccurate. To overcome this problem, I suggest that researchers of Lowland Patayan pottery temporarily set aside the ceramic type concept and consider the importance of attributes in relation to well-defined research questions, with particular attention directed at chronological refinement and material sourcing.
2000 Advances in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7:129-137 , 2000
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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.
Ceramic style analysis in archaeology and ethnoarchaeology: Bridging the analytical gap
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 1989
A refitting study with a sample of sherds from Broken K Pueblo indicates that at least some of the "patterning" in the assemblage identified by Hill (1970, Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona 18) results from unrecognized whole vessels and large conjoinable sherds. It is argued that contemporary stylistic analyses are based on many of the same analytical methods employed in the Broken K study and that research findings of ethnoarchaeology are rarely applied in the analysis of prehistoric ceramics. Despite archaeologists' increasing awareness of formation processes, spurred by ethnoarchaeological research, analytic methods that identify and take into account the effects of these processes on archaeological ceramic assemblages are underdeveloped. Suggestions are offered to resolve this problem, for both archaeological and ethnoarchaeological ceramic analysis, that may permit archaeologists to discover in prehistoric assemblages the same types of relationships identified in systemic assemblages.
A Typology of Practice: The Archaeological Ceramics from Mahurjhari
Internet Archaeology, 2019
This article presents the results of the analysis of the pottery from the recently excavated site at Mahurjhari in central India. In doing so, it also proposes a new way of looking at archaeological ceramics in South Asia. Here, archaeological ceramics are traditionally defined on the basis of their visual appearance (their colour and texture), which results in a great deal of ambiguity, limits intra-and interregional comparison, and impedes a more material culture-based approach to their study. Indeed, there is no established pottery typology for the region in which this site is located, and despite the fact that ceramics invariably account for the majority of excavated assemblages they frequently remain unreported. Addressing this, we suggest that recording and analysing archaeological ceramics on the basis of how they were made (essentially, implementing a chaîne opératoire approach) might be a useful way to proceed. Given that such approaches are new in this area, we explain what this entails, and then present the results of the analysis of this pottery assemblage using these methods-defining classes of pottery an on the basis of traces left by the ways they were made. With a typology thus defined on the basis on the practice of pottery manufacture, we then seriate the assemblage with reference to recent AMS dates obtained from the site and suggest a chronological sequence for the pots from this site. These results are then framed within a wider discussion of the potential value of the application of new ways of looking at archaeological ceramics in South Asia. All hyperlinks in this PDF document link back to the original published version of this article online.
АРХЕОЛОГІЯ, МУЗЕЄЗНАВСТВО, ПАМ'ЯТКОЗНАВСТВО: освітній та дослідницький аспектиVITA ANTIQUA, 2019
The study of ceramic is one of the broadest research areas in archaeological sciences. Over the last two centuries, archaeologists have developed a number of approaches and methods that have had different goals of the studies: from the study of ceramics as an object of art to the reproduction of the manufacture technologies, and the study of pottery as a «mediator» for the study of everyday life of the ancient population. The purpose of the article is a brief review of the scientific methods developed at different times in Western and Eastern Europe, North America, and to discover new combinations of research approaches that would allow archaeological ceramic complexes to be explored at a new level. This is especially true of the difficulties encountered in the study of Neolithic utensils, given the incomplete forms of utensils, the relatively small number of finds, and natural damage. The new paradigm in ceramics investigations is the studies of the raw material of Neolithic ceramics using natural methods of analysis, such as binocular, p-XRF, spectrographic analyses. The results may open up new knowledge regarding the mobility of the ancient population and the cultural exchange between different groups of the Neolithic population. Keywords: Neolithic, ceramic studies, pottery, migration, cultural exchange.
Stucco as a Timestamp on Lowland Patayan Pottery in the Far-Western Southwest
Kiva: The Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History, 2020
Poor chronology has long plagued the Patayan archaeological tradition of the far-western reaches of the North American Southwest. Archaeologists typically rely upon ceramics to assign associated materials to the broadly defined Patayan I, II, and III periods. However, as data amass, it is becoming increasingly clear that the established date ranges for certain types of Patayan pottery tied to those periods are inaccurate, and that the overall chronology may benefit from revision. Consequently, there are renewed calls to reassess the ceramic typologies and identify attributes with utility for dating affiliated archaeological phenomena. Here I focus on one such attribute, the stucco surface treatment on Lower Colorado Buff Ware. While the prevailing typology regards stucco as diagnostic of the Patayan II and III periods (circa AD 1000– 1900), I present data that show stucco is conspicuously absent from contexts dating before AD 1400 but is rather common thereafter. I conclude Lowland Patayan potters began applying stucco to their wares between 1400 and 1600, and this attribute is therefore useful for dating associated material to a narrower AD 1400–1900 timeframe.
B.A.R International Series 2193, Oxford, Archaeopress, p. 80-88. , 2011
Technological ceramic analysis aims to studying the synchronic and diachronic variability of archaeological assemblages from an anthropological angle. It has its bases in actualist studies (anthropology and ethno-archaeology). After a reminded of the principal results obtained in the last decades, methodological results are extracted that are applicable to archaeological assemblages; from these a classification procedure is proposed. The latter, based on the chaîne opératoire concept, allows a controlled image of the various traditions that make up a ceramic assemblage; given that a tradition corresponds to a social entity which can vary in sociological nature and include several production units. On a diachronic level it enable stables features to be distinguished from those that evolve through time, thereby witnessing to endogenous and/or exogenous evolutionary phenomena. In this way technological ceramic analysis can lay the foundations of many-faceted interpretations, the study of technical traditions being the first stage for subsequently analysing the organisation and distribution of ceramic production, the function of the sites, and, lastly, the ways in which technical and stylistic characteristics evolve.
Current issues in ceramic ethnoarchaeology
Journal of Archaeological Research, 2003
The last decade has seen a surge in ceramic ethnoarchaeological studies worldwide, covering such important topics as ceramic production, technological change, ceramic use and distribution, and social boundaries. Some of the most exciting new Americanist research helps archaeologists refine models of ceramic production. Increasing numbers of non-Americanist studies use a technology and culture framework to examine manufacturing variability, the dynamics of cultural transmission between generations, and the articulation between ceramic technology and social boundaries. This review summarizes these recent trends, places current ethnoarchaeological research in its theoretical contexts, and looks to the future of research in a dynamic landscape in which ceramic production systems are undergoing rapid change. Many varieties of research currently now fall under the rubric of ceramic ethnoarchaeology, and Americanist archaeologist are encouraged to look beyond their own regionalist and theoretical paradigms to consult this wider literature.