Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas (CPA) is a network of scholars based across North and South America who are committed to the use and advancement of optical petrography in the analysis of ceramic assemblages from anywhere in the world. Having maintained a consistent presence at the SAA meetings since our first poster session back in 2018, this year’s session showcases not only what petrographic data can tell us about the selection of raw materials and manufacturing techniques but also the wide array of additional characterization methods used to determine the source of those materials (e.g., neutron activation analysis, portable X-ray fluorescence, spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermoluminescence). The research featured here involves projects based in the southeastern and southwestern United States, Jamaica, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Egypt. From the crafting of communities to geoarchaeological and chronological applications to the potential for automating data collection, the posters in this session highlight the variety of questions being addressed by this niche group of specialists whose expertise can never be fully replaced by artificial intelligence.
Other Keywords
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Ceramic Petrography •
Communities of Practice •
Craft Production •
Woodland •
Ancestral Pueblo •
Material Culture and Technology •
Geoarchaeology •
Petrography •
Trade and exchange •
Ceramic Analysis
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Delaware (State / Territory) •
Georgia (State / Territory) •
Mississippi (State / Territory) •
Tennessee (State / Territory) •
North Carolina (State / Territory) •
Kentucky (State / Territory) •
West Virginia (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)
- Documents (11)
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Chemical and Mineralogical Characterization of Ceramic Traditions on the Precolonial Colombian Middle Orinoco Archaeological Sites (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The “Cotúa Reflexive Archaeology Project” (2015–2018) directed by José R. Oliver (UCL, UK) included a ceramic research analysis in the Venezuelan Middle Orinoco area, specifically in three archaeological sites of the Átures Rapids region, to identify trading and interaction process in precolonial ceramic...
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Early Evidence of the “Mississippianization” of Late Woodland Communities from the Upper Tombigbee River Drainage, Mississippi (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the southeastern United States, the genesis of Mississippian societies circa AD 1000 is often referred as Mississippianization, or the process whereby regions were incorporating general Mississippian traits. This process involved the spread of a broad cultural horizon that influenced many aspects of...
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Enhancing Ceramic Petrography through Deep Learning (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Clay recipes reveal information about the local geology and the inclusion of different additives that make up a vessel, which in turn reflects the social, environmental, and technological context of ceramic manufacture. Ceramic petrography has long been instrumental in shedding light on key manufacturing...
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A Geochemical and Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from the Estero Island Site in SW Florida (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Estero Island site (8LL4) is located on a shell ridge in what is now Fort Myers Beach in southwestern Florida. A portion of the site, Mound House, consists of a historic house built on top of a Calusa shell mound which was occupied from ca. AD 500–1000. Conservation efforts at Mound House to preserve...
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Impacts of the Coronado Expedition on Social Networks at Piedras Marcadas Pueblo, New Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between late 1540 and early 1541, the Vázquez de Coronado expedition laid siege to the Southern Tiwa ancestral community of Piedras Marcadas and fought the Pueblo’s residents. Eventually, the Coronado expedition left the Rio Grande valley and moved north and east to the Plains. Piedras Marcadas was...
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Molding Community: Compositional Insights into the Organization of Mississippian Pottery Production on the Central Gulf Coast of Florida, USA (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Technological innovations can have profound social consequences. Alterations to a given potting network change the pacing and tempo of interactions between experts and apprentices, effectively restructuring intergenerational relationships within a community. For this reason, experienced potters may...
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Nubian Ceramic Traditions on Elephantine Island, Egypt (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The southern border of Egypt with Sudan (prehistoric Nubia) was always a culturally fluid area. As archaeological studies of the site of Elephantine Island have illustrated, there are features representing Egyptian and Nubian cultural affiliation. The pottery in particular can be of Nubian or Egyptian...
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Petrographic and Geochemical Analysis of Pottery from the White Marl Archaeological Site, St. Catherine Parish, Jamaica, West Indies (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. White Marl is the largest, most intensively inhabited late-precolonial site documented for Jamaica, with an artifact assemblage dominated by massive quantities of ceramics. Its size and structural organization suggest that it functioned as a major sociopolitical/economic hub among the increasingly complex...
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Petrographic and Lead-Isotope Analysis of Pottery from Goat Spring Pueblo, New Mexico (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research at Goat Spring Pueblo, a village located in the Rio Abajo region of south-central New Mexico, examines cultural continuity and transformation in the late Ancestral Pueblo period (AD 1300–1680). This poster reports data concerning local versus nonlocal pottery production and vessel exchange at...
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Return to Yarinacocha: A pXRF and Petrographic Study of Ceramics Artifacts from the Tutishcainyo Site Series (1400 BCE–900 CE), Ucayali, Peru (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When Donald Lathrap excavated a series of related archaeological sites on the shores of Yarinacocha, an oxbow lake of the Central Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon, the elaborately decorated pottery and long-occupied sites he uncovered contradicted the prevailing narrative of the Amazon as a...
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Using Petrography to Fine-Tune Temper and Fabric Recognition of Indigenous Pottery in Florida (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Petrographic studies of archaeological pottery from Florida have contributed to our understanding of the range of variability in pottery tempers (prominent aplastics that may have been intentionally added to clay in pottery-making) and fabrics (characteristics of clay resources themselves). From the many...