Andrew Womack chaired a symposium at the 87th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology on April 2, 2022, in Chicago, IL. The session was titled "Recipes of Practice: Theorizing the Link between Ceramic Paste Composition and Potting Communities" and included the 9 papers listed below plus comments from our discussant, Mary Ownby.
Social Identity and Paste Recipes: A Petrographic Study of Middle Nubian Pottery Traditions
Mary Ownby and Aaron de Souza
The prehistory of Sudanese Nubia has been marked by the classification of past peoples into cultural historical groups. The C-group culture is mostly found in northern Nubia and first appeared in 2400 BCE. Slightly later but in the same area and beyond is the PanGrave culture whose distinct burials are documented starting around 1800 BCE. Although there are some archaeological indicators to support these divisions, they also lack rigorous scientifically backed data, particularly for their ceramic traditions. The petrographic analysis of 25 samples from the Pan-Grave and C-group culture clarified the paste recipes employed and identified clay features distinctive to each group. While this provides a firmer basis for distinguishing the two cultures, it also raises many more questions related to how these groups lived on the landscape (especially their level of mobility), the organization of pottery production, and how the different vessel shapes and features are used to create social identity. Particularly interesting are similarities in firing technology and paste preparation, suggesting a common ceramic tradition despite form and raw material source differences.
Connecting Pots to Potters in the Qijia Period in Northwest China
Andrew Womack
Recent excavations at the Majiayao type-site in Gansu Province, China have revealed extensive occupational layers dating to both the Majiayao and subsequent Qijia periods. Petrographic analysis was undertaken on two types of sherds from a Qijia period context, revealing two distinct paste groups, both comprised of locally available raw materials but not exactly matching the two sherd types. This paper will focus on how to interpret these remains: are the different paste recipes a result of different intended functions of the vessels or do they instead reflect different communities of practice operating simultaneously at the site or at separate sites? Comparison with other sites in the region as well as other ethnographic and archaeological studies are used to hypothesize about the range of possibilities, with discussion centering on the challenges of identifying and interpreting communities of practice in a fragmented archaeological record.
Collective Social Identities through Ceramic Production: A Techno-petrographic Analysis of the Assemblage from La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (600-800 CE)
Andrea Torvinen
The use of morpho-stylistic attributes to classify ceramic styles shared across Northwestern Mesoamerica has advanced our understanding of the occupational histories and social dynamics within and among the polities that developed during the Epiclassic period (600–900 CE). However, we lack data related to each stage in the manufacturing process, especially formation techniques (i.e., how the elements of a vessel are fashioned and pieced together to create a finished form). For example, previous research at the site of La Quemada, Zacatecas, identified a set of locally sourced petrographic fabrics that crosscut types associated with regional styles, suggesting that potters either used a wider variety of raw material sources when producing these types or that more than one potting community was producing them (Torvinen 2018). This paper addresses that question by re-classifying the La Quemada assemblage using the chaîne opératoire approach to distinguish techno-petrographic groups and thus, more accurately characterize the sociological composition of the community. By prioritizing the enculturated behaviors that a potter learns within a community of practice over stylistic or economic choices, these results will contribute to anthropological theory by illustrating how collective social identities can be recognized and evaluated through ceramic production at La Quemada and beyond.
Identity as Expressed through Utility Wares at Goat Spring Pueblo in South-Central New Mexico
Suzanne Eckert and Deborah Huntley
Our research at Goat Spring Pueblo, a late Ancestral Pueblo period (AD 1300–1680) village located in the Rio Abajo region of south-central New Mexico, examines four realms of social dynamics that can be traced in the archaeological record: identity, ritual, economy, and resistance. One goal of our research is to explore the nature of identity through examination of technological style. Specifically, we are interested in how group identity continued or transformed over time. Due to its geographic location and its multiple occupations, Goat Spring Pueblo is ideal for addressing this issue. Not only was this village located at the border between Zuni and Piro lands, but it also was situated along the trail that connected Western Pueblo and Rio Abajo villages. As such, the Goat Spring Pueblo may have been a gateway for the movement of immigrants, religious ideas, and goods between the Rio Grande and Western Pueblo regions. We present the results of our petrographic analysis of utility ware from Goat Spring Pueblo, which indicate shared attributes with multiple cultural regions. This has social and cultural implications for interpreting group identity among residents of this late Ancestral Pueblo village.
Secret Recipes: Potting Knowledge and Alterity in the Lower Southeastern United States
C. Trevor Duke and Neill Wallis
Archaeologists involved in pottery provenance research often see petrographic analysis as a complement or supplement to more sophisticated sourcing techniques, such as neutron activation analysis (NAA) or laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). However, provenance studies typically focus on vessel exchange, which constitutes only a subset of the social relationships implicated in pottery-making. Researchers have recently paid more attention to the extent to which temper “recipes” model social relations and identity. While pottery form and surface treatment can be easily mimicked, tempering practices are typically transmitted through close contact between experts and trainees. Further, social groups can establish alterity and prestige by maintaining control over tempering recipes through selective knowledge transmission and secrecy. Petrographic point-counting arguably provides the most precise means of quantifying and comparing paste recipes. Bearing these observations in mind, we combine point-count, NAA, and LA-ICP-MS data to provide a holistic view of the social relationships surrounding pottery production and exchange during the Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) periods in the Lower Gulf Coastal Plain. We mobilize these data to argue that some social groups in the Tampa Bay region gained prestige by controlling the recipes and manufacturing techniques of mortuary potting.
Characterizing Communities in the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage through Microscopic Assemblages
Domenique Sorresso
Assemblages are gatherings of diverse components that act upon each other and are in a constant state of becoming. The relationships between parts are not fixed, and components can be separated from one assemblage and added to another without completely changing the component itself. Assemblages of practice may be used to discern material practices of identity formation within communities. By taking an assemblage approach to petrographic analysis, assemblages can be recognized within a single vessel. Microscopic assemblages within the vessel may allow for the observation and analysis of relationships between the potter and the vessel’s microscopic constituents (e.g., the clay matrix, temper, natural inclusions), as well as relationships between the constituents themselves. From this perspective, this study analyzes petrographic data of pottery from four Mississippian (AD 1000– 1550) sites in the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage of Alabama and Mississippi. The active, often ephemeral, nature of assemblages may reflect the coalescence of the communities in this region. Microscopic assemblages can be utilized as technological proxies for coalescence at the smallest scale. Assemblages at this level can lend information regarding local traditions and natural resources utilized, as well as how these factors are affected by the coming together of different groups.
Gathering for the Ancestors: Tracing Communities of Practice through Guancavilca Ritual Ceramics, Colonche Valley, Ecuador
Maria Masucci
The 2015 discovery of stone sculptures in the Colonche Valley, Ecuador, has opened new opportunities for archaeological research. Regional survey has since revealed an extensive series of Guancavilca tombs, adobe platforms and stone features from ca. 800– 1532 CE. Analyses of surface ceramics and looted tomb contents identify vessel types common to tombs, platform and stone sites but with differences in micro-stylistic and production choice differences. Placed into the context of the author’s comparative data of stylistic and compositional studies of the ceramics from the southwest coast it is hypothesized that the individuals or communities associated with the ceramics, entombments, and activities at the hilltop sites were not all residential in the immediate valley. Instead, the burial, platform, and possible grain storage sites were gathering places for individuals from communities across the southern coastal region. This time period is one of shifts in settlement and economy, ritual practices and increasing sociopolitical complexity. The research therefore offers not only a powerful test case for the use of compositional analyses for identifying potential communities of practice but also revealing the role of such gatherings and interactions in this key period of ethnogenesis of the Guancavilca of coastal Ecuador.
About the Importance of Integrating the Chaîne Opératoire Concept into Ceramic Studies: The Case of the Virú and Moche Populations Cultural Affiliations and Contacts (Early Intermediate Period, Northern Coast of Peru)
Alicia Espinosa
The development of archaeometric studies has allowed us to address with great detail the choices made by potters regarding the acquisition and preparation of raw materials. However, to better understand the social identity of potters, studies that take into account all the steps of the production process, and in particular the stages of shaping, should be conducted more often. Technological approaches, founded on the chaîne opératoire concept, have indeed proven their ability to reach an anthropological reading of ceramic material. These studies are particularly effective when it comes to questioning the affiliations between ancient societies by comparing the technical traditions of potters. To illustrate this method, we present our investigations into Virú and Moche ceramic production, which coexisted on the northern coast of Peru during the Early Intermediate period (200 BC–AD 600). The study of macrotraces, coupled with a petrographic study, reveals that these populations did not belong to the same community of practice, since they do not share the same technical knowledge. Nevertheless, they maintained frequent contact, as evidenced by the circulation of Moche ceramic vessels on Virú sites. These results lead us to reconsider the links between these populations, whose definitions are still debated.
Serving the Inka: Petrography and Communities of Practice in the Production of Inka and Ychsma Pottery at Pachacamac
James Davenport
Pachacamac was the political center of the Ychsma polity on the central coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period (1000– 1470 CE) and the home of an important oracle. After conquest by Tawantinsuyu, the Inka Empire, it was transformed into a major Inka center for the region. The Inka constructed multiple state administrative and ritual structures and spaces over the existing landscape, including Punchao Cancha, the Temple of the Sun. In these places the Inka held state-sponsored rituals, including feasts, which utilized pottery in imperial styles for the preparation, storage, and serving of food and drink. Previous studies into the production process of Inka pottery revealed multiple communities of practice produced this pottery, including local Ychsma potters paying tribute to the Inka state through labor and mitmaq communities of potters who were relocated from their homelands to work full-time for the state. Thin section petrography is applied to a sample of 176 ceramics in Inka and local Ychsma decorative styles from Punchao Cancha and other contexts from Pachacamac. This is done to investigate the identities of these communities of practice and evaluate their relationships with different forms and decorative styles present in the assemblage and with each other.
Social Identity and Paste Recipes: A Petrographic Study of Middle Nubian Pottery Traditions
Mary Ownby and Aaron de Souza
The prehistory of Sudanese Nubia has been marked by the classification of past peoples into cultural historical groups. The C-group culture is mostly found in northern Nubia and first appeared in 2400 BCE. Slightly later but in the same area and beyond is the PanGrave culture whose distinct burials are documented starting around 1800 BCE. Although there are some archaeological indicators to support these divisions, they also lack rigorous scientifically backed data, particularly for their ceramic traditions. The petrographic analysis of 25 samples from the Pan-Grave and C-group culture clarified the paste recipes employed and identified clay features distinctive to each group. While this provides a firmer basis for distinguishing the two cultures, it also raises many more questions related to how these groups lived on the landscape (especially their level of mobility), the organization of pottery production, and how the different vessel shapes and features are used to create social identity. Particularly interesting are similarities in firing technology and paste preparation, suggesting a common ceramic tradition despite form and raw material source differences.
Connecting Pots to Potters in the Qijia Period in Northwest China
Andrew Womack
Recent excavations at the Majiayao type-site in Gansu Province, China have revealed extensive occupational layers dating to both the Majiayao and subsequent Qijia periods. Petrographic analysis was undertaken on two types of sherds from a Qijia period context, revealing two distinct paste groups, both comprised of locally available raw materials but not exactly matching the two sherd types. This paper will focus on how to interpret these remains: are the different paste recipes a result of different intended functions of the vessels or do they instead reflect different communities of practice operating simultaneously at the site or at separate sites? Comparison with other sites in the region as well as other ethnographic and archaeological studies are used to hypothesize about the range of possibilities, with discussion centering on the challenges of identifying and interpreting communities of practice in a fragmented archaeological record.
Collective Social Identities through Ceramic Production: A Techno-petrographic Analysis of the Assemblage from La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (600-800 CE)
Andrea Torvinen
The use of morpho-stylistic attributes to classify ceramic styles shared across Northwestern Mesoamerica has advanced our understanding of the occupational histories and social dynamics within and among the polities that developed during the Epiclassic period (600–900 CE). However, we lack data related to each stage in the manufacturing process, especially formation techniques (i.e., how the elements of a vessel are fashioned and pieced together to create a finished form). For example, previous research at the site of La Quemada, Zacatecas, identified a set of locally sourced petrographic fabrics that crosscut types associated with regional styles, suggesting that potters either used a wider variety of raw material sources when producing these types or that more than one potting community was producing them (Torvinen 2018). This paper addresses that question by re-classifying the La Quemada assemblage using the chaîne opératoire approach to distinguish techno-petrographic groups and thus, more accurately characterize the sociological composition of the community. By prioritizing the enculturated behaviors that a potter learns within a community of practice over stylistic or economic choices, these results will contribute to anthropological theory by illustrating how collective social identities can be recognized and evaluated through ceramic production at La Quemada and beyond.
Identity as Expressed through Utility Wares at Goat Spring Pueblo in South-Central New Mexico
Suzanne Eckert and Deborah Huntley
Our research at Goat Spring Pueblo, a late Ancestral Pueblo period (AD 1300–1680) village located in the Rio Abajo region of south-central New Mexico, examines four realms of social dynamics that can be traced in the archaeological record: identity, ritual, economy, and resistance. One goal of our research is to explore the nature of identity through examination of technological style. Specifically, we are interested in how group identity continued or transformed over time. Due to its geographic location and its multiple occupations, Goat Spring Pueblo is ideal for addressing this issue. Not only was this village located at the border between Zuni and Piro lands, but it also was situated along the trail that connected Western Pueblo and Rio Abajo villages. As such, the Goat Spring Pueblo may have been a gateway for the movement of immigrants, religious ideas, and goods between the Rio Grande and Western Pueblo regions. We present the results of our petrographic analysis of utility ware from Goat Spring Pueblo, which indicate shared attributes with multiple cultural regions. This has social and cultural implications for interpreting group identity among residents of this late Ancestral Pueblo village.
Secret Recipes: Potting Knowledge and Alterity in the Lower Southeastern United States
C. Trevor Duke and Neill Wallis
Archaeologists involved in pottery provenance research often see petrographic analysis as a complement or supplement to more sophisticated sourcing techniques, such as neutron activation analysis (NAA) or laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). However, provenance studies typically focus on vessel exchange, which constitutes only a subset of the social relationships implicated in pottery-making. Researchers have recently paid more attention to the extent to which temper “recipes” model social relations and identity. While pottery form and surface treatment can be easily mimicked, tempering practices are typically transmitted through close contact between experts and trainees. Further, social groups can establish alterity and prestige by maintaining control over tempering recipes through selective knowledge transmission and secrecy. Petrographic point-counting arguably provides the most precise means of quantifying and comparing paste recipes. Bearing these observations in mind, we combine point-count, NAA, and LA-ICP-MS data to provide a holistic view of the social relationships surrounding pottery production and exchange during the Late Woodland (ca. AD 650–1050) and Mississippian (ca. AD 1050–1550) periods in the Lower Gulf Coastal Plain. We mobilize these data to argue that some social groups in the Tampa Bay region gained prestige by controlling the recipes and manufacturing techniques of mortuary potting.
Characterizing Communities in the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage through Microscopic Assemblages
Domenique Sorresso
Assemblages are gatherings of diverse components that act upon each other and are in a constant state of becoming. The relationships between parts are not fixed, and components can be separated from one assemblage and added to another without completely changing the component itself. Assemblages of practice may be used to discern material practices of identity formation within communities. By taking an assemblage approach to petrographic analysis, assemblages can be recognized within a single vessel. Microscopic assemblages within the vessel may allow for the observation and analysis of relationships between the potter and the vessel’s microscopic constituents (e.g., the clay matrix, temper, natural inclusions), as well as relationships between the constituents themselves. From this perspective, this study analyzes petrographic data of pottery from four Mississippian (AD 1000– 1550) sites in the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage of Alabama and Mississippi. The active, often ephemeral, nature of assemblages may reflect the coalescence of the communities in this region. Microscopic assemblages can be utilized as technological proxies for coalescence at the smallest scale. Assemblages at this level can lend information regarding local traditions and natural resources utilized, as well as how these factors are affected by the coming together of different groups.
Gathering for the Ancestors: Tracing Communities of Practice through Guancavilca Ritual Ceramics, Colonche Valley, Ecuador
Maria Masucci
The 2015 discovery of stone sculptures in the Colonche Valley, Ecuador, has opened new opportunities for archaeological research. Regional survey has since revealed an extensive series of Guancavilca tombs, adobe platforms and stone features from ca. 800– 1532 CE. Analyses of surface ceramics and looted tomb contents identify vessel types common to tombs, platform and stone sites but with differences in micro-stylistic and production choice differences. Placed into the context of the author’s comparative data of stylistic and compositional studies of the ceramics from the southwest coast it is hypothesized that the individuals or communities associated with the ceramics, entombments, and activities at the hilltop sites were not all residential in the immediate valley. Instead, the burial, platform, and possible grain storage sites were gathering places for individuals from communities across the southern coastal region. This time period is one of shifts in settlement and economy, ritual practices and increasing sociopolitical complexity. The research therefore offers not only a powerful test case for the use of compositional analyses for identifying potential communities of practice but also revealing the role of such gatherings and interactions in this key period of ethnogenesis of the Guancavilca of coastal Ecuador.
About the Importance of Integrating the Chaîne Opératoire Concept into Ceramic Studies: The Case of the Virú and Moche Populations Cultural Affiliations and Contacts (Early Intermediate Period, Northern Coast of Peru)
Alicia Espinosa
The development of archaeometric studies has allowed us to address with great detail the choices made by potters regarding the acquisition and preparation of raw materials. However, to better understand the social identity of potters, studies that take into account all the steps of the production process, and in particular the stages of shaping, should be conducted more often. Technological approaches, founded on the chaîne opératoire concept, have indeed proven their ability to reach an anthropological reading of ceramic material. These studies are particularly effective when it comes to questioning the affiliations between ancient societies by comparing the technical traditions of potters. To illustrate this method, we present our investigations into Virú and Moche ceramic production, which coexisted on the northern coast of Peru during the Early Intermediate period (200 BC–AD 600). The study of macrotraces, coupled with a petrographic study, reveals that these populations did not belong to the same community of practice, since they do not share the same technical knowledge. Nevertheless, they maintained frequent contact, as evidenced by the circulation of Moche ceramic vessels on Virú sites. These results lead us to reconsider the links between these populations, whose definitions are still debated.
Serving the Inka: Petrography and Communities of Practice in the Production of Inka and Ychsma Pottery at Pachacamac
James Davenport
Pachacamac was the political center of the Ychsma polity on the central coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period (1000– 1470 CE) and the home of an important oracle. After conquest by Tawantinsuyu, the Inka Empire, it was transformed into a major Inka center for the region. The Inka constructed multiple state administrative and ritual structures and spaces over the existing landscape, including Punchao Cancha, the Temple of the Sun. In these places the Inka held state-sponsored rituals, including feasts, which utilized pottery in imperial styles for the preparation, storage, and serving of food and drink. Previous studies into the production process of Inka pottery revealed multiple communities of practice produced this pottery, including local Ychsma potters paying tribute to the Inka state through labor and mitmaq communities of potters who were relocated from their homelands to work full-time for the state. Thin section petrography is applied to a sample of 176 ceramics in Inka and local Ychsma decorative styles from Punchao Cancha and other contexts from Pachacamac. This is done to investigate the identities of these communities of practice and evaluate their relationships with different forms and decorative styles present in the assemblage and with each other.