San Juan Redware Economy: Tracking the Pottery of Montezuma Canyon to the Great Sage Plain

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Montezuma Canyon, in extreme southeast Utah, was home to large populations during the Basketmaker III through PIII period (AD 500-1300). Potters located throughout this deeply-incised, 73 km long north-south running canyon, produced San Juan Redware pottery in abundance well-beyond the needs of the village. Archaeometric evidence indicates that locally produced pottery at some sites moved in all directions and vessels were being carried out of the canyon as far as 75km away. Through analysis of pottery and clay found proximal to major sites, we traced the pathways of hundreds of sherds from producer to consumer. Population centers in southwestern Colorado imported large numbers of redware vessels from southeastern Utah, including those found in Montezuma Canyon. Although previous research may have identified patterns of interaction between villages through identification of geochemically-similar pottery recovered from sites in southeastern Utah and elsewhere, this research established provenience between the cultural landscape (ceramics) and the geographic landscape (clay). Thus, we identified villages that produced San Juan Redware and villages that consumed it within, and outside of, the canyon. By establishing the geochemical fingerprints of sherds and clay we continue to illuminate patterns of prehistoric exchange and social interaction among the Anasazi.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeological Research in Montezuma Canyon, San Juan County, Utah   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26299