Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Ceramics are one of humanity’s most durable products. The common geological presence, variability, and plasticity of their main ingredient—clay—and the additive nature of their manufacturing process have afforded humans remarkable creativity and space for social expression. People in separate parts of the world, at different times, in diverse social, economic, and ecological contexts have produced them in various fabrics (from earthenwares to porcelains) to satisfy needs that ranged from the quotidian to the cosmological. As a result, they are invaluable to archaeologists/archaeometrists for answering diverse research questions. Ceramic analyses examine the selection and preparation of raw materials; the manufacturing, firing, and decorative methods; and the shape, size, use, distribution, reuse, and discard of the final product, as well as decorative designs. Ceramic ecology and chaîne opératoire are guiding mid-range theoretical approaches, supported by archaeometric, geoarchaeological, and ethnoarchaeological methods. The goal of this new annual Society for American Archaeology symposium is to present and assess current ceramic research from around the world, at different scales, using varied methods and theoretical approaches. This new series is sponsored by the Society for Archaeological Sciences and continues a 35-year tradition of ceramic presentations at the American Anthropological Association meetings.
Other Keywords
Ceramic Analysis •
Craft Production •
Trade and exchange •
Material Culture and Technology •
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis •
Neolithic •
Long-distance exchange •
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: INAA •
Ceramics •
Experimental Archaeology
Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) •
United Mexican States (Country) •
Kyrgyz Republic (Country) •
Japan (Country) •
Asia (Continent) •
Mongolia (Country) •
Republic of India (Country) •
People's Republic of Bangladesh (Country) •
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Country) •
Union of Myanmar (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)
- Documents (14)
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Ceramic Production in Epiclassic Central Mexico: Strategies for Assessing Regional Variation with INAA, Paste Recipes, and Stylistic Choices (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Epiclassic Central Mexico (ca. AD 550–850) is characterized by competing city-states in which ceramic distribution aligns with a series of neighboring solar market economies. INAA compositional study provides key evidence for assessing multiscalar patterns of production of diagnostic and decorated ceramic wares in the Basin of Mexico and Tula...
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Ceramic Technology beyond the Rim: Reconstructing (and Firing) a Late Neolithic Chinese Kiln (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The past several decades have seen a shift in the focus of ceramic studies in Neolithic China from ceramic products toward ceramic production, as scholars have pushed beyond typological analyses to investigate the people who made, handled, and used these wares. Despite this turn toward process, comparatively little attention is given to the many...
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Challenges in the Identification of Fresh Volcanic Glass Shards in Ancient Maya Pottery Sherds (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The major components of ceramics consist of clay and temper. It is assumed that these components are local. The Maya lowlands are dominated by limestone, and its use as temper is ubiquitous. Therefore, the distinct presence of fresh volcanic ash in the Late Classic period pottery is noteworthy. Efforts to identify a local volcanic source closer than...
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Compositional and Stylistic Analysis of Texcoco-Molded Censers and Molds from the Gulf Lowland Frontier of the Aztec Empire (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 20 years a growing assemblage of Aztec-style ceramics, specifically Texcoco Molded censers and molds, has been recovered from sites throughout the northeastern Tochtepec province of the Triple Alliance Empire. In this presentation, we examine the chemical compositions using pXRF, paste recipes, and decorative attributes and...
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The Diaspora of Eighteenth-Century Mexican Figurines: The intersection of Spain, Mexico, and La Florida (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Spanish West Florida, a military presidio was established in 1698 to try to protect Spanish shipping and interests in the naturally deepwater port of the Pensacola Bay from constantly encroaching British and French pressure. Over the next 65 years the presidio was moved four times, enduring British-led Indian raids, French occupations, and eight...
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Establishing Ceramic Source Groups in Florida Using a Multi-method Approach (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 500 ceramic artifacts from four prehistoric sites in Pinellas County, Florida, were analyzed nondestructively using a portable XRF spectrometer to address research questions about local production and potential movement or exchange over significant distances. All dating to the Safety Harbor period (ca. AD 900–1500), at least 100 diagnostic...
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Fine-Scale Investigation of Changes in the Ceramic Production Using Sherd Temper in the Mt. Trumbull Area of the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, Arizona (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study is a part of an investigation into the adaptation patterns among the small-scale farmers who lived in a very marginal environment in the American Southwest. The examination of the changes in the ceramic production and distribution in the Mt. Trumbull and adjacent areas was conducted using LA-ICP-MS and optically stimulated luminescence...
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Introduction: Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In any academic discipline, the sociology of knowledge, involving the creation and sustenance of networks, is often as important as the knowledge itself to discover and disseminate scientific information. This session celebrates and reveals the critical role of Frederick R. Matson (†), Charles C. Kolb, and Louana M. Lackey (†) in creating and...
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The Mesoamerican Ceramic Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Database at MURR: History, Current Status, and Future Directions (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the nearly 35 years since the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) was founded, the Mesoamerican Ceramic NAA database has grown to almost 30,000 entries spanning Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and beyond. This paper presents the history of how the database came together,...
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Micro-CT Scanning with 3D Image Analysis of Pore Systems in Sherds as a Tool to Understand Performance Characteristics of Archaeological Ceramics (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Characterizing a ceramic pore system reveals information about use properties and functionality. Pores making up the system include some that are isolated and others with connections to other pores, some connected to the ceramic surface and others interior-only, and variation exists in pore size and shape and connection size and directness. The...
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New Insights into Bronze Age Ceramic Production in Northwestern China: Petrographic Analysis of Qijia and Shajing Materials from the Andersson Collections (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The late Neolithic to late Bronze Age periods (ca. 2300–400 BCE) in what is now northwestern China was a time of significant technological and social change. Based on limited excavation and survey, it has been suggested that major changes took place in subsistence technologies, including a potential shift from sedentary farming to mobile herding, as...
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Pan-American Ceramics Project: Increasing the Accessibility and Interoperability of Ceramic Data in the Digital Age (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pottery is a powerful tool for understanding past societies. The timing and function of a site, the nature and rhythms of daily life, and the social relations of site inhabitants with each other and with people from far away regions are questions archaeologists ask of ceramic data regularly. The power of such data can be greatly enhanced when they...
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Salt and Plumbate: Late Classic Multi-crafting in Eastern Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological mounds within the mangrove zone west of the Rio Cahuacan, in far-southern Chiapas, Mexico, have dense surface remains of broken Plumbate pottery, solid ceramic cylinders, and various other kinds of pyro-technological evidence. Clays from the region match Tohil Plumbate chemical composition, thus solidifying the inference that the...
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Urbanization and Ceramic Consumption at the Late Neolithic Settlement of Liangchengzhen (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at the Longshan period settlement of Liangchengzhen in southeastern Shandong have uncovered large quantities and diverse forms of ceramic vessels from contexts representing each phase of occupation. This paper explores consumption patterns for ceramic vessels in one neighborhood during eight phases of occupation estimated to represent...