Step by Step: Tracing World Potting Traditions through Ceramic Petrography

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Step by Step: Tracing World Potting Traditions through Ceramic Petrography" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The term chaîne opératoire, or the chain of production, is used to describe the whole process of ceramic manufacture. By understanding this process, we may investigate the series of operations that transform raw materials into a finished product. Qualitative and quantitative ceramic petrographic methods are uniquely suited to identify production methods, such as paste preparation, forming techniques, and firing atmosphere. Petrographic data can be utilized to characterize the different chaînes opératoires present in a ceramic assemblage so they might be ultimately connected to the intention of the potter. These baseline data can then be used for comparative analyses of production step sequences and to define local and regional communities of practice. This session brings together case studies from around the world using thin-section petrography along with other complimentary methods, some of which aim to home in on individual steps while others analyze the chain of production in its entirety. By using these data to identify cultural patterns, these processes may be further used to answer larger questions such as those of identity and practice in relation to the spread of these chains of production.