C. Trevor Duke and John Lawrence chaired a symposium at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology that was held online in April 2021. The session was titled "Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography" and included the 10 papers listed below plus comments from our discussant, Judith Habicht-Mauche.
Ceramic Production at the Stone-Walled Citadel of Shimao: Initial Results of Petrographic Analysis
Andrew Womack
Over the last 10 years, excavations at the early Bronze Age site of Shimao (2300–1800 BC), in northern Shaanxi Province, have transformed our understanding of the archaeology of early China. What was previously seen as an area that was peripheral to the development of early dynastic centers is now being heralded by some scholars as the precursor of Chinese civilization. However, despite incredible finds of large-scale stone architecture, bronze working, jade artifacts, and elaborate stone carvings, our overall understanding of the economic and political organization of the inhabitants of Shimao is still very limited. In this presentation I examine the most common artifact class at the site, pottery, using petrographic analysis, in order to explore production methods, as well as potential production organization and exchange. The results demonstrate that most of the pottery used at Shimao was produced locally, likely by multiple production groups at or near the site, but was not particularly standardized in regard to paste recipes. Thus, ceramic production was likely not tightly controlled or formalized, but instead took place in local households or workshops, and is not significantly different from ceramic production organization at sites across northern China at this time.
Retracing the Relations between Virú-Gallinazo Communities, Early Intermediate Period, Northern Coast of Peru: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Technology and Petrography
Alicia Espinosa and Isabelle Druc
Until recently, it was thought that during the Early Intermediate period on the northern coast of Peru, the Virú-Gallinazo populations only coexisted for a short time with the Mochicas. Recent archaeological operations in the Virú Valley now reveal that in this region they developed without interruption from 200 BC to AD 700. Nevertheless, the relationship between this core zone and the VirúGallinazo communities settled in the adjacent valleys is still poorly known. The comparative technological analysis of the ceramic recovered in Virú-Gallinazo contexts from the Virú, Moche, Chicama, and Lambayeque valleys provides new insights on this matter. The aim of this research is to identify all the steps of the operative chain, by combining the analysis of marks left by potters, visible on surfaces and sections, and the petrographic analysis of paste. The results demonstrate how these groups are embedded in the same learning networks, and thus belong to the same community of practice. They also show how these populations, by settling in different regions, have preserved their traditions while adapting certain practices. In particular, we discuss how potters have modified their strategies for acquiring raw materials and adopted new practices through contact with contemporary groups in their new region.
Understanding Pottery Production at El Campanario (Huarney-Peru) through Ceramic Paste Analysis and pXRF
José Peña and Robert Tykot
The present research focuses on the strategies in the procurement of raw material used in the production of pottery at the El Campanario site during the beginning of the Late Intermediate period (AD 1150–1280). The manufacture of pottery occurred within the domestic areas at this site and while domestic pottery was recovered during excavation, there was also evidence of ceramics containing press-molded, incise, and painted decoration. This research combine ceramic paste analysis as well as elemental compositional analysis (pXRF) in order to observed the potters’ technological choices in the production of pottery. Paste analysis conducted on pottery sherds discovered at El Campanario shows high variability in paste composition, suggesting that potters obtained raw materials from various sources. The geological information of the valley suggests that various sources were used in the procurement of temper for the manufacture of pottery. The selection of geological areas can be interpreted as varying technological traditions, which were learned within the household or community. The sharing of knowledge and experiences occurred within the social group and was then transmitted through generations. In addition, compositional analysis was also conducted on pottery sherds, which shows similarities in elemental composition of the clay in almost the pottery analyzed.
Pottery Traditions in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert: Petrography and Geochemistry of Iluga Túmulos Ceramics (Tarapacá, Northern Chile)
Mauricio Uribe, Camila Riera-Soto, and Petrus le Roux
The Iluga Túmulos site (900 BC–AD 1600) is an archaeological area of great significance, with abandoned agricultural and public structures partially buried by aridization processes. It represents a record of multiple cultural occupations, which started in the Early Formative and continued until Inca and Spanish times. Among mounds, squares, and different structures is a surface covered with different archaeological materials. Ceramics are certainly the most abundant material with examples from the Early and Late Formative; Late Intermediate of the western valleys and altiplano; and imperial, provincial, and local specimens of Inca times, as well as Hispanic colonial pieces. The goal of this research is to extend the study of ceramics through petrography (thin sections) and geochemistry (major, minor, and trace elements and radiogenic isotopes). Results obtained are crucial to explain the existence and development of ceramic traditions in Tarapacá, allowing us to also comment on other social issues. Particularly, the transmission of knowledge, possible sources, and choices of raw materials, paste recipes, circulation, and exchange of vessels between populations in the south-central Andes. Our purpose is to define human group circulation through ceramic raw materials, using a novel database of ceramic petrography and geochemistry for northern Chile.
A Monte Carlo Approach to Estimating Plausible Ceramic Similarity Values from Fabric Characterizations
Andrea Torvinen and Matt Peeples
Ceramic characterization studies often depend on estimates of similarities and differences in assemblages drawn from relatively small samples to address questions regarding a range of social patterns and processes. In most cases, such characterizations do not consider uncertainty due to sampling error nor do they consider in detail the relationship between characterized samples and whole assemblages. We introduce a method that allows ceramicists to extrapolate plausible values and ranges for ceramic diversity and similarity values between contexts based on limited observed data (i.e., petrographic fabrics or chemical reference groups) using a Monte Carlo simulation. We use this method to evaluate the spatiotemporal consistency of ceramic production among potters at the West Mexican center of La Quemada, Zacatecas. Our study relies on a relatively small petrographic sample of 297 sherds (2.86% of site assemblage) belonging to 19 pottery types, each having been assigned to one of four fabric classes. Using these data with site-wide ceramic frequency data, we generate estimates and error ranges of the plausible similarities between contexts across the site in terms of shared fabrics that crosscut ceramic types. We suggest that this methodology has wide-reaching applications at various spatial scales and using different types of characterization data.
Establishing Mississippian Potting Communities at the Wickliffe Mounds Site, Kentucky
Anthony Farace
Pottery vessels at the Wickliffe Mounds site, a Mississippian village located in Ballard County, Kentucky, can be used as a representative sample to examine the ceramic production techniques and choices used within the Ohio-Mississippi River confluence region. This paper uses both visual and quantitative (point-counting) ceramic petrography to understand steps in the chaîne opératoire at Wickliffe establishing common practices and a localized method of production. Sixty sherds, of different vessel types, were analyzed visually using a polarized light microscope and quantitatively using a PETROG stepping stage and software. Utilizing a PCA constructed of the ceramic components, the paper identifies six fabric groups defined by different combinations of base clays and temper. The paper also infers technological choices taken by potters at Wickliffe Mounds, including paste preparation, formation methods, finishing and decorating methods, and firing conditions.
Establishing Provenance and Population Movements of the Vacant Quarter Phenomenon through Ceramic Traditions
Domenique Sorresso
The Vacant Quarter is a phenomenon that involved the movement of hundreds, possibly thousands, of sedentary communities in mid-continental North America during the Mississippian period (~AD 1450–1550). Many of the details surrounding this phenomenon are still debated. This study narrows in on two subregions of the Vacant Quarter: (1) the Upper Tombigbee River drainage in Mississippi and Alabama and (2) the Middle Cumberland River drainage in Tennessee. This pilot study analyzes an assemblage of shell-tempered ceramics from multiple archaeological sites in these two subregions. Petrographic analysis is used to determine provenance as well as to understand whether elements of the ceramic manufacturing process were consistent between sites. Ultimately, these analyses will shed light on subregional differences in population flows prior to the Vacant Quarter abandonment that potentially reflect climatic, ecological, or social instability that may have preceded the event. This research may also clarify the speed (gradual or fast) and nature of the abandonment (constant or oscillating), as well as potential patterns of political factionalism or coalescence prior to the abandonment. Preliminary analysis shows site specific recipes that likely utilize local clays, although similar shell preparation strategies seem to have been used across all sites.
Networks of Embodied Practice: Personhood, the Body, and Potting Skill in the North American Southeast
C. Trevor Duke, Neill Wallis, and Ann Cordell
Archaeologists over the last two decades have become increasingly interested in the relationship between personhood and the human body. Bodily engagement with the material world can create and reproduce different kinds of social understandings, and is a means by which persons make subjectivity durable, transmissible, and experiential. While case studies of personhood have generally been beneficial for the field of archaeology, few have focused on how differences in skill level impact social categorization. For instance, part-time potters may not self-identify specifically as “potters.” Conversely, specialized mortuary potters that received years, perhaps decades, of hands-on training are much more likely to identify with their craft. We use metrics of potting consistency to evaluate differences in skill from Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) mortuary contexts in the Tampa Bay region. We also employ petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify where across the southeastern landscape these differences in skill occurred. We argue that while specialized mortuary potters were present during both the Late Woodland and Mississippian periods, they put their skill to use for different purposes due to changes in social networks, and thus became fundamentally different kinds of social subjects.
Petrographic Analysis of Ancestral Pueblo Glaze-Painted Pottery from the Southern Rio Grande Region (Rio Abajo) in New Mexico, USA
Suzanne Eckert and Deborah Huntley
Archaeologists over the last two decades have become increasingly interested in the relationship between personhood and the human body. Bodily engagement with the material world can create and reproduce different kinds of social understandings, and is a means by which persons make subjectivity durable, transmissible, and experiential. While case studies of personhood have generally been beneficial for the field of archaeology, few have focused on how differences in skill level impact social categorization. For instance, part-time potters may not self-identify specifically as “potters.” Conversely, specialized mortuary potters that received years, perhaps decades, of hands-on training are much more likely to identify with their craft. We use metrics of potting consistency to evaluate differences in skill from Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) mortuary contexts in the Tampa Bay region. We also employ petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify where across the southeastern landscape these differences in skill occurred. We argue that while specialized mortuary potters were present during both the Late Woodland and Mississippian periods, they put their skill to use for different purposes due to changes in social networks, and thus became fundamentally different kinds of social subjects.
Pottery-Making Practices and Technological Choices during the Early Period (ca. 200 BC-AD 600) at the Southern Sector of Abaucán Valley (Dept. Tinogasta, Province of Catamarca, Argentina): A View from Ceramic Petrography
Guillermo De La Fuente and Sergio Vera
The southern sector of the Abaucán Valley presents an important prehispanic occupation belonging to the Early Formative period (ca. 200 BC–AD 600). The main material evidence of this occupation is given by the presence of small household units characterized by a quadrangular settlement pattern associated with agricultural infrastructure, mainly large cultivation canchones, simple and multiple grinding stones, together with a typical gray polished pottery, named Saujil, distributed along the residence compounds as well as in the cultivation areas. Saujil pottery is mainly characterized by a reduced firing atmosphere and several ceramic forms such as bowls, jars, globular ollas, small ollitas, and infant funerary urns. In this paper, we present a technological characterization of ceramic pastes through ceramic petrography together with a morphological analysis of the main Saujil ceramic forms from La Florida archaeological site, Department of Tinogasta, Province of Catamarca, Argentina. Technological analyses were carried out at two different levels, and ceramic petrography was performed using image analysis software in a representative sample of sherds. Additionally, a cross-cultural comparison with other nearby geographical areas for this chronological period is given.
Ceramic Production at the Stone-Walled Citadel of Shimao: Initial Results of Petrographic Analysis
Andrew Womack
Over the last 10 years, excavations at the early Bronze Age site of Shimao (2300–1800 BC), in northern Shaanxi Province, have transformed our understanding of the archaeology of early China. What was previously seen as an area that was peripheral to the development of early dynastic centers is now being heralded by some scholars as the precursor of Chinese civilization. However, despite incredible finds of large-scale stone architecture, bronze working, jade artifacts, and elaborate stone carvings, our overall understanding of the economic and political organization of the inhabitants of Shimao is still very limited. In this presentation I examine the most common artifact class at the site, pottery, using petrographic analysis, in order to explore production methods, as well as potential production organization and exchange. The results demonstrate that most of the pottery used at Shimao was produced locally, likely by multiple production groups at or near the site, but was not particularly standardized in regard to paste recipes. Thus, ceramic production was likely not tightly controlled or formalized, but instead took place in local households or workshops, and is not significantly different from ceramic production organization at sites across northern China at this time.
Retracing the Relations between Virú-Gallinazo Communities, Early Intermediate Period, Northern Coast of Peru: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Technology and Petrography
Alicia Espinosa and Isabelle Druc
Until recently, it was thought that during the Early Intermediate period on the northern coast of Peru, the Virú-Gallinazo populations only coexisted for a short time with the Mochicas. Recent archaeological operations in the Virú Valley now reveal that in this region they developed without interruption from 200 BC to AD 700. Nevertheless, the relationship between this core zone and the VirúGallinazo communities settled in the adjacent valleys is still poorly known. The comparative technological analysis of the ceramic recovered in Virú-Gallinazo contexts from the Virú, Moche, Chicama, and Lambayeque valleys provides new insights on this matter. The aim of this research is to identify all the steps of the operative chain, by combining the analysis of marks left by potters, visible on surfaces and sections, and the petrographic analysis of paste. The results demonstrate how these groups are embedded in the same learning networks, and thus belong to the same community of practice. They also show how these populations, by settling in different regions, have preserved their traditions while adapting certain practices. In particular, we discuss how potters have modified their strategies for acquiring raw materials and adopted new practices through contact with contemporary groups in their new region.
Understanding Pottery Production at El Campanario (Huarney-Peru) through Ceramic Paste Analysis and pXRF
José Peña and Robert Tykot
The present research focuses on the strategies in the procurement of raw material used in the production of pottery at the El Campanario site during the beginning of the Late Intermediate period (AD 1150–1280). The manufacture of pottery occurred within the domestic areas at this site and while domestic pottery was recovered during excavation, there was also evidence of ceramics containing press-molded, incise, and painted decoration. This research combine ceramic paste analysis as well as elemental compositional analysis (pXRF) in order to observed the potters’ technological choices in the production of pottery. Paste analysis conducted on pottery sherds discovered at El Campanario shows high variability in paste composition, suggesting that potters obtained raw materials from various sources. The geological information of the valley suggests that various sources were used in the procurement of temper for the manufacture of pottery. The selection of geological areas can be interpreted as varying technological traditions, which were learned within the household or community. The sharing of knowledge and experiences occurred within the social group and was then transmitted through generations. In addition, compositional analysis was also conducted on pottery sherds, which shows similarities in elemental composition of the clay in almost the pottery analyzed.
Pottery Traditions in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert: Petrography and Geochemistry of Iluga Túmulos Ceramics (Tarapacá, Northern Chile)
Mauricio Uribe, Camila Riera-Soto, and Petrus le Roux
The Iluga Túmulos site (900 BC–AD 1600) is an archaeological area of great significance, with abandoned agricultural and public structures partially buried by aridization processes. It represents a record of multiple cultural occupations, which started in the Early Formative and continued until Inca and Spanish times. Among mounds, squares, and different structures is a surface covered with different archaeological materials. Ceramics are certainly the most abundant material with examples from the Early and Late Formative; Late Intermediate of the western valleys and altiplano; and imperial, provincial, and local specimens of Inca times, as well as Hispanic colonial pieces. The goal of this research is to extend the study of ceramics through petrography (thin sections) and geochemistry (major, minor, and trace elements and radiogenic isotopes). Results obtained are crucial to explain the existence and development of ceramic traditions in Tarapacá, allowing us to also comment on other social issues. Particularly, the transmission of knowledge, possible sources, and choices of raw materials, paste recipes, circulation, and exchange of vessels between populations in the south-central Andes. Our purpose is to define human group circulation through ceramic raw materials, using a novel database of ceramic petrography and geochemistry for northern Chile.
A Monte Carlo Approach to Estimating Plausible Ceramic Similarity Values from Fabric Characterizations
Andrea Torvinen and Matt Peeples
Ceramic characterization studies often depend on estimates of similarities and differences in assemblages drawn from relatively small samples to address questions regarding a range of social patterns and processes. In most cases, such characterizations do not consider uncertainty due to sampling error nor do they consider in detail the relationship between characterized samples and whole assemblages. We introduce a method that allows ceramicists to extrapolate plausible values and ranges for ceramic diversity and similarity values between contexts based on limited observed data (i.e., petrographic fabrics or chemical reference groups) using a Monte Carlo simulation. We use this method to evaluate the spatiotemporal consistency of ceramic production among potters at the West Mexican center of La Quemada, Zacatecas. Our study relies on a relatively small petrographic sample of 297 sherds (2.86% of site assemblage) belonging to 19 pottery types, each having been assigned to one of four fabric classes. Using these data with site-wide ceramic frequency data, we generate estimates and error ranges of the plausible similarities between contexts across the site in terms of shared fabrics that crosscut ceramic types. We suggest that this methodology has wide-reaching applications at various spatial scales and using different types of characterization data.
Establishing Mississippian Potting Communities at the Wickliffe Mounds Site, Kentucky
Anthony Farace
Pottery vessels at the Wickliffe Mounds site, a Mississippian village located in Ballard County, Kentucky, can be used as a representative sample to examine the ceramic production techniques and choices used within the Ohio-Mississippi River confluence region. This paper uses both visual and quantitative (point-counting) ceramic petrography to understand steps in the chaîne opératoire at Wickliffe establishing common practices and a localized method of production. Sixty sherds, of different vessel types, were analyzed visually using a polarized light microscope and quantitatively using a PETROG stepping stage and software. Utilizing a PCA constructed of the ceramic components, the paper identifies six fabric groups defined by different combinations of base clays and temper. The paper also infers technological choices taken by potters at Wickliffe Mounds, including paste preparation, formation methods, finishing and decorating methods, and firing conditions.
Establishing Provenance and Population Movements of the Vacant Quarter Phenomenon through Ceramic Traditions
Domenique Sorresso
The Vacant Quarter is a phenomenon that involved the movement of hundreds, possibly thousands, of sedentary communities in mid-continental North America during the Mississippian period (~AD 1450–1550). Many of the details surrounding this phenomenon are still debated. This study narrows in on two subregions of the Vacant Quarter: (1) the Upper Tombigbee River drainage in Mississippi and Alabama and (2) the Middle Cumberland River drainage in Tennessee. This pilot study analyzes an assemblage of shell-tempered ceramics from multiple archaeological sites in these two subregions. Petrographic analysis is used to determine provenance as well as to understand whether elements of the ceramic manufacturing process were consistent between sites. Ultimately, these analyses will shed light on subregional differences in population flows prior to the Vacant Quarter abandonment that potentially reflect climatic, ecological, or social instability that may have preceded the event. This research may also clarify the speed (gradual or fast) and nature of the abandonment (constant or oscillating), as well as potential patterns of political factionalism or coalescence prior to the abandonment. Preliminary analysis shows site specific recipes that likely utilize local clays, although similar shell preparation strategies seem to have been used across all sites.
Networks of Embodied Practice: Personhood, the Body, and Potting Skill in the North American Southeast
C. Trevor Duke, Neill Wallis, and Ann Cordell
Archaeologists over the last two decades have become increasingly interested in the relationship between personhood and the human body. Bodily engagement with the material world can create and reproduce different kinds of social understandings, and is a means by which persons make subjectivity durable, transmissible, and experiential. While case studies of personhood have generally been beneficial for the field of archaeology, few have focused on how differences in skill level impact social categorization. For instance, part-time potters may not self-identify specifically as “potters.” Conversely, specialized mortuary potters that received years, perhaps decades, of hands-on training are much more likely to identify with their craft. We use metrics of potting consistency to evaluate differences in skill from Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) mortuary contexts in the Tampa Bay region. We also employ petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify where across the southeastern landscape these differences in skill occurred. We argue that while specialized mortuary potters were present during both the Late Woodland and Mississippian periods, they put their skill to use for different purposes due to changes in social networks, and thus became fundamentally different kinds of social subjects.
Petrographic Analysis of Ancestral Pueblo Glaze-Painted Pottery from the Southern Rio Grande Region (Rio Abajo) in New Mexico, USA
Suzanne Eckert and Deborah Huntley
Archaeologists over the last two decades have become increasingly interested in the relationship between personhood and the human body. Bodily engagement with the material world can create and reproduce different kinds of social understandings, and is a means by which persons make subjectivity durable, transmissible, and experiential. While case studies of personhood have generally been beneficial for the field of archaeology, few have focused on how differences in skill level impact social categorization. For instance, part-time potters may not self-identify specifically as “potters.” Conversely, specialized mortuary potters that received years, perhaps decades, of hands-on training are much more likely to identify with their craft. We use metrics of potting consistency to evaluate differences in skill from Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) mortuary contexts in the Tampa Bay region. We also employ petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to identify where across the southeastern landscape these differences in skill occurred. We argue that while specialized mortuary potters were present during both the Late Woodland and Mississippian periods, they put their skill to use for different purposes due to changes in social networks, and thus became fundamentally different kinds of social subjects.
Pottery-Making Practices and Technological Choices during the Early Period (ca. 200 BC-AD 600) at the Southern Sector of Abaucán Valley (Dept. Tinogasta, Province of Catamarca, Argentina): A View from Ceramic Petrography
Guillermo De La Fuente and Sergio Vera
The southern sector of the Abaucán Valley presents an important prehispanic occupation belonging to the Early Formative period (ca. 200 BC–AD 600). The main material evidence of this occupation is given by the presence of small household units characterized by a quadrangular settlement pattern associated with agricultural infrastructure, mainly large cultivation canchones, simple and multiple grinding stones, together with a typical gray polished pottery, named Saujil, distributed along the residence compounds as well as in the cultivation areas. Saujil pottery is mainly characterized by a reduced firing atmosphere and several ceramic forms such as bowls, jars, globular ollas, small ollitas, and infant funerary urns. In this paper, we present a technological characterization of ceramic pastes through ceramic petrography together with a morphological analysis of the main Saujil ceramic forms from La Florida archaeological site, Department of Tinogasta, Province of Catamarca, Argentina. Technological analyses were carried out at two different levels, and ceramic petrography was performed using image analysis software in a representative sample of sherds. Additionally, a cross-cultural comparison with other nearby geographical areas for this chronological period is given.