In Defense of Plainware Ceramics: Form, Function, and Foodways in Sapoa Period Pacific Nicaragua

Summary

Plain, utilitiarian pottery has typically been considered the 'red headed stepchild' of ceramic studies. This is especially the case in Pacific Nicaragua, where beautifully decorated polychromes have attracted the most attention. However, more theoretically engaged studies consider utilitarian pottery as a key to understanding foodways, and therefore offer important insights into alternative dimensions of social practice. This paper will consider plainware cooking and storage vessels from several sites along the shore of Lake Cocibolca in Pacific Nicaragua. Variations in form and orifice provide a starting point for discriminating between kitchen assemblages that vary across time and space, and can therefore distinguish food production across the cultural mosaic of a multi-ethnic landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Cerámica sin Fronteras: Defining Cultural Phenomena at the Intersection of Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua

Keywords

Spatial Coverage