Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances

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.