Preliminary Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Author(s): Kathleen Marsaglia; John Lawrence; Thomas Wake; Scott Fitzpatrick
Year: 2015
Summary
Petrographic analysis of ceramic sherds can elucidate manufacturing techniques and exchange systems. We present the first mineralogical assessment via thin-section petrography of archeological ceramics collected from the Bocas del Toro province on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Examined sherds include surface finds collected from archaeological sites on Bastimentos Island and at Cerro Brujo on the mainland, and excavated samples from Sitio Drago, Isla Colon. Thin-section petrography of the surface-find sherds indicates that seven different types of temper were used. Compositions of representative sherds from each group were determined by counting and classifying 200 points per thin section, into 14 mineral and rock fragment categories (temper), grog (temper), and two matrix categories (silt and clay). One group contains mainly clay rich (purpose-made?) grog temper, whereas the others contain mainly rock temper with different proportions of quartz, feldspar, dense minerals, and various varieties of volcanic lithic fragments. The latter are consistent with derivation from local Panamanian geologic units including one, with pyroclastic temper, from a more volcanically active region (El Baru volcano?). Additional sherds are being processed from Sitio Drago in order to understand how the ceramics from the largest known site in Bocas del Toro relate to the previously examined specimens.
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Cite this Record
Preliminary Petrographic Analysis of Ceramics from the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama. John Lawrence, Kathleen Marsaglia, Scott Fitzpatrick, Thomas Wake. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 397054)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
Central America
Spatial Coverage
min long: -94.702; min lat: 6.665 ; max long: -76.685; max lat: 18.813 ;