Directionality in Ceramic Vessel Construction and Ceremonial Circuitry in the Ancestral Pueblo World: A Case Study from Pueblo Bonito

Summary

This paper explores the relationship between utility ware vessel construction and widely shared elements of cosmology in the Chaco interaction sphere through an examination of corrugated gray ware ceramics from Pueblo Bonito. The direction of coiling, which is inversely related to the angle of corrugation or pinching, appears to be a conservative element of ceramic technological style and is typically consistent within regions. As these differences cannot be accounted for by handedness alone, it has been proposed that coiling direction may be related to directional symbolism. Based on an analysis of over 11,000 indented corrugated gray ware sherds from the Pueblo Bonito middens, Cibola, Chuska and Tusayan wares are found to exhibit primarily counterclockwise coiling, while Mesa Verde wares exhibit a significantly higher proportion of clockwise coiling. These results indicate that directionality in vessel manufacture is neither randomly distributed nor tied to specific production units, but instead may be associated with longstanding traditions of ceremonial/processional circuitry across the Ancestral Pueblo area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

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