Not Incised, but Well-Burnished: A typology of undecorated Early Horizon feasting wares from Hualcayán, highland Ancash, Peru

Summary

Feasting has long been recognized as one of the most widespread and significant political and ritual activities in the prehispanic Andes. In spite of this deep significance, the undecorated ceramics that undoubtedly played important roles in these ritual events are often overlooked for analysis in favor of their more elaborate, decorated counterparts. Here, we present a quantitatively constructed typology for undecorated ceramic vessels recovered from an Early Horizon ceremonial mound at the site of Hualcayán in the highlands of Ancash, Peru. Examining functional characteristics like vessel form alongside a suite of technological variables including firing, temper selection, and surface finish technique, we explore evidence for multiple production processes and consider their implications for reconstructing the social organization of feasting events in the Ancash highlands. More broadly, we examine Hualcayán’s parallels with and departures from other models of feasting organization during the Early Horizon, taking into consideration the reported ceramic assemblages from contemporary sites on the north-central coast as well as those throughout the neighboring highlands.

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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