Changes in the Sources of Olivine-Tempered Ceramics and the Social Interaction Patterns among the Virgin Branch Ancestral Pueblo

Summary

Various forms of social interactions seem to have been adopted as risk-buffering strategies in the marginal agricultural environment of the Virgin Branch Ancestral Puebloan region. The olivine-tempered ceramics are widely distributed in this region and the sources of olivine are in the highlands near Mt. Trumbull and Tuweep. Thus, the presence of olivine-tempered ceramics in the lowland Virgin area indicates economic and social ties between the highland and lowland populations. This ceramic compositional study using LA-ICP-MS suggests that the sources of the olivine-tempered ceramics found in the Mt. Trumbull and the lowland Virgin areas are not only in Mt. Trumbull but also in the lowland Virgin area, with the latter production centers having used olivine from Mt. Trumbull. The study also suggests that some of the olivine-tempered ceramics made in the lowland Virgin area were moved back to Mt. Trumbull. In this study, I explore the mechanisms of social interactions that moved olivine-tempered pots within various areas. In particular, I address the question of whether olivine-tempered ceramics were transported as a result of trading or human migration in various time periods. To answer this question, ceramic compositional data will be combined with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20885