Ceramic production for Castillo de Huarmey, Peru: multiple productions and buzzing potters

Summary

The paste analysis of the ceramics found in the Castillo de Huarmey, a Middle Horizon Wari political center on the north coast of Peru brought forth the existence of a variety of production areas and a panorama of multiple producers with different agendas or practices. Much of the ceramics appear to have been made with material available in the Huarmey lower valley, coastal area, and probably the adjacent Culebras Valley. The fine painted Wari ceramics and fine reduced impressed wares present a degree of manufacture denoting care in material selection, granulometry control and firing, with homogeneity in paste composition and technology. Mold impressed wares were more rapidly made, with variability in material provenance, composition and sorting. Communities of potters sharing the same technological tradition (and types of molds) must have been working close to the coast and in the lower to mid-valley. Upper valley producers probably contributed much less if at all to the distribution network feeding the Huarmey community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16051