Applications of Microscopy and Thin Section Petrography in Iroquoian Ceramic Analysis

Summary

Iroquoian ceramic analysts typically focus on decorative style, in part because this approach maximizes the amount of information that can be obtained from an assemblage in a short amount of time. Decorative attributes can be rapidly identified and recorded, and a significant literature links patterns in decorative styles to social, temporal, and cultural trends. Characteristics of ceramic fabrics including clays and tempers are rarely examined, but adding these elements to the standard Iroquoian ceramic analysis would address important unanswered questions about Iroquoian ceramic production.

I present a methodology for the efficient and cost-effective analysis of Iroquoian ceramic fabrics applicable to ceramic pots and pipes. The attributes selected and methods for recording them are developed using insights from petrographic analysis of ceramic thin sections using a polarizing microscope following Whitbread’s (1989) methodology. By focusing on characteristics diagnostic of specific technological and provenance related characteristics of ceramic fabrics that are evident using a standard binocular microscope, this methodology is designed to be used and refined in conjunction with selective petrographic analysis. I test my methodology by comparing this method with thin section petrography using ceramics from three ancestral Wendat village sites located near Toronto, Ontario spanning roughly 1400-1550 C.E.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21939