Toys or Totems? Exploring Ritual and Play in the Middle Rio Grande

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Miniature vessels are generally placed into one of three categories by archaeologists; children’s toys, ritual offerings, or test pots to assess clay quality. Previous studies in the Southwest have explored these small bowls and jars as introductory entries to the potter’s craft, made by small hands under the tutelage – or in emulation – of their elders (Crown 2014; Kamp 2001; Stinson 2004). A number of these vessels frequently show up in ritual or burial deposits, suggesting that at least some of these vessels may not be used strictly as child’s toys. This pilot study explores a sample of 110 of these vessels from Pottery Mound, a Pueblo IV site in central New Mexico, to better understand work, play, and ritual in the late Prehispanic Southwest. A multivariate approach incorporating fingerprint ridge density, qualitative analysis, and spatial context is utilized to better understand the purpose these vessels may have served in the past. Preliminary analysis reveals a statistically significant relationship between the context in which miniature vessels are located and the probable age of the artisan. Vessels likely made by children tend to occur in midden deposits, while those made by adults occur more frequently in rooms or ritual spaces.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25678