Spatial, Technological, and Functional Characteristics of Ceramics along the Southern California Coast

Summary

Prehistoric ceramics found across southern California have a discrete spatial distribution. While locally manufactured ceramics are common to the south and southeast of the Los Angeles River, prehistoric ceramic sherds are rare in deposits located to the northwest. This marked distribution is potentially explained through a few hypotheses. Populations to the north may have had access to resources necessary for pottery alternatives or may have differed in their settlement patterns, mobility, and/or subsistence practices. Alternatively, it is possible that ceramics are associated with distinct population histories and that the south is occupied with populations that are derived from the California desert. In this poster, I evaluate measurements of technological and functional variability of ceramic assemblages from deposits across coastal southern California to determine the degree of variation that exists in the use and production methods of vessel ceramics. After ruling out differences in surface age and deposition, if aspects of the environment are correlated with space, it is likely that vessel ceramics are tied to an ecological or economic feature of the environment. Alternatively, random variability across space potentially supports the hypothesis that population histories are largely driving the presence of pottery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17466