Petrography (Other Keyword)
26-42 (42 Records)
Native Amerindian groups who inhabited the southern Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean likely used local materials for temper in the manufacturing of pottery, but may have transported pottery once it was produced. To identify potential sources of temper and possible movement of these resources and/or pottery, we conducted petrographic analysis of Pre-Columbian ceramics found on various islands, including Barbados, Mustique, Carriacou, and Union. Each island exhibits distinct geology with sand...
Petrography As a Means of Tracing Stone Tools from Florida (1973)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Petrography, Pots and People: Determining the source of Hohokam plainwares at Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico. (2016)
Late prehistoric Sonora, Mexico was a dynamic landscape of warfare, mass migration and trade networks spanning modern international borders. At around AD1300 archaeologists have clear evidence of Hohokam populations moving from southern Arizona and displacing indigenous Trincheras populations in the Altar River Valley of Sonora. With a ceramic type called Sells Plain, Hohokam potters introduce a new ceramic manufacturing technology –paddle-and-anvil ceramics- to the region. In response to this...
Pre-Columbian Ceramics in East-Central Belize: A Petrographic Characterization Study (2017)
In 2015-2016, the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP) in collaboration with HD Analytical Solutions, initiated a preliminary petrographic characterization study of presumed "local" pottery and daub artifacts, surface collected during settlement survey at the Late to Terminal Classic (ca. 750-1000 C.E.) Maya site of Alabama, Belize. This initial study, though small, has proved mighty in terms of the new information it has revealed, building on earlier studies of Maya communities in...
Probing Provenance: Investigating the Geographic Origins of Pottery from the Mantle Site (ca. 1525 C.E.), Ontario, using Petrographic and microprobe Analyses (2016)
Petrographic studies of variability in the geographic origins of ancient pottery rely on discrimination of vessels based on their raw material ingredients, which can be traced to natural sources on the geological landscape. In the Great Lakes region, the glacial landscape is dominated by sediments comprising heterogeneous mixtures of eroded and transported materials, making such distinctions challenging. In this study we investigate variation in the geographic origins of pottery from the Mantle...
Proyecto Petrografía de la Cerámica de La Quemada, Zacatecas
This project seeks to identify the productions zones of several decorated ceramic wares that are hypothesized to have circulated within the Zacatecas region of Northwest Mexico during the Epiclassic period (600-900 C.E.). The study focuses on decorated wares recovered from the site of La Quemada and stylistically similar wares recovered from other centers in the region. A sample of 806 sherds from nine centers and one site cluster, which represents seven distinct occupational subareas...
Results of Petrographic Analysis of Polychromes across the Casas Grandes World (2015)
This research, part of my dissertation, focuses on the mineralogical variability of Casas Grandes polychromes. Whereas past studies have suggested that some Casas Grandes polychrome types are more common in some geographic areas than others (see Brand 1935; De Atley 1980; Findlow and DeAtley 1982; Kelley et al. 1999; Larkin et al. 2004 for more complete discussions), these studies have been challenged as they assume polychromes recovered at sites are made locally, rather than imported (Douglas...
Rojo Grafitado is not graphite. A slow-science interpretation of the production of an Andean ceramic style. (2015)
Building upon the slow-science movement, and the work of Olivier Gosselain and others, this presentation examines how our understanding of ancient ceramic production depends upon the path a research may take. It argues for a re-articulation and re-evaluation of qualitative observation, small number of samples and quantitative data. The Rojo Grafitado case presented arose from research hazards, curiosity, and a regional perspective on ceramic production. During the first millennium B.C. in the...
San Tempers in Pre Historic Sherds from Nan Madol on Ponape (1980)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Seeing Red: Characterizing Historic Bricks at Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York 1652-1735 (2015)
This project develops a basic material characterization of pre-mechanized, handmade bricks excavated at the site of Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, New York. In the early Manor period of 1650-1690, this early Northern provisioning plantation supplied Barbadian sugar operations and pursued mercantile interests independent of state control. The technology and processing of pre-mechanized brick and other architectural ceramics have received comparatively little attention in historical...
Shifting Domestic Economies at Postclassic Period Moxviquil: Insights from Ceramic Petrography (2017)
The Early to Late Postclassic Period transition brought substantial changes to the political and economic organization of many regions of Mesoamerica. For the networked polities of highland Chiapas, these changes included substantial decreases in population at existing monumental centers; the establishment of new political centers in several principal highland valleys, and the establishment of an expansionary Chiapanec state in the Central Depression, centered on the city of Chiapa de Corzo....
Social Interactions at Gramalote: A Ceramic Production Perspective (2016)
Recent petrographic analysis of ceramics and comparative samples from the Formative site of Gramalote, on the North coast of Peru, allows us to brush a tentative portrait of ceramic production at or for Gramalote. Considering ceramics as part of a socio-economic network, the identification of different paste groups yields information relative to some of the interactions occurring at that time period in the Gramalote region.
Taste for Color in Basque Land during the Paleolithic: New Approach for Description of Social Organization during the Gravettian (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gravettian is a slice of human history that takes place during prehistory from 32 to 22 ka BP in Europe (from the Urals to the south of the Iberian Peninsula). This long period of our history was mostly built on lithic industries models with limited consideration for evidence of other technical and cultural practices, like coloring materials. Based on the...
Technological styles and production practices in the Río Grande de San Juan Basin (Argentinean-Bolivian border) during the Late Intermediate Period (2015)
The lack of direct ceramic production evidence, coupled with the lack of technical studies, hinder the understanding of ceramic production practices and its organization across the south central Andes. Yavi-Chicha ceramics associated with a diversity of sites in the Río Grande de San Juan Basin (straddling the border of Bolivia and Argentina) provide a unique entry point to explore socio-political dynamics during the Late Intermediate (AD 1000-1450) and Inka (AD 1450-1540) periods. Framed within...
They Sent Sandstone Across the Sea? A Preliminary Petrographic Study of Stone Bowls and Mortars (2015)
The Spanish chroniclers of the 18th century document extensive and intensive long distance regional trade networks among indigenous peoples throughout southern California (and beyond). Archaeologists are currently reevaluating these long held interpretations of Chumash regional exchange networks in the southern California region during the late prehistoric period. We report a pilot study focused the determination of the lithology/mineralogy of stone bowls/mortars collected from various sites in...
Using Natural Breaks to Work Together: Compositional Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics using Petrography and NAA (2015)
Historically, the application of petrographic techniques and NAA to the compositional analysis of archaeological ceramics in the New World emerged from two very distinct intellectual foundations. Initially, petrographers focused on studying temper to characterize the types of materials used, their geological sources, and their coarseness in an effort to reconstruct the cultural development of potting traditions and interaction among cultures. NAA, on the other hand, was originally used to...
Using Petrographic Analysis to Identify Pottery Production: Shoshone Pottery Making at the Ravens Nest (48SU3871) Southwestern Wyoming (2016)
Petrographic analysis has been commonly used to identify trade in ceramics and stone tools. At the Raven’s Nest site petrographic analysis was used to characterize the compositional variation in the ceramic assemblage recovered during excavation. The homogeneous nature of the ceramic pastes of the assemblage prompted additional petrographic study of local soils and geologic outcrops. Comparison of the local resources with the ceramics indicated the possibility for the local production of pottery...