Looking through the Local Lens: Recognizing Southern Chuska Valley Production of Mesa Verde Style Pottery

Summary

Recent analyses of ceramics from the Southern Chuska Valley (SCV) have suggested that vessels commonly identified as imports from the Mesa Verde region in fact largely represent locally-produced variants of Mesa Verde White Ware rather than actual imported vessels. Data collected from the US 491 Highway mitigation project (SRI) and the El Paso Pipeline project (WCRM) provide a baseline from which we plan to further investigate the presence of locally-manufactured Mesa Verde variant types in the SCV. Types such as McElmo and Mesa Verde Black-on-white have been used for decades to classify ceramics in this region based on stylistic elements, paint composition, and surface treatments; however, a review of the literature and results of these recent analyses indicate that definitions of these well-known and oft-recorded types commonly disregard discrepancies in paste and temper that suggest production loci in the SCV rather than the Northern San Juan region. This presentation will explore the issue of Mesa Verde style white ware classification across the San Juan Basin, including a review of existing literature and a preliminary proposal for upcoming research targeting the investigation and description of southern variants of Mesa Verde white ware.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage