Reconstructing the Chaîne Opératoire of Inka and Local Pottery from Pachcamac, Peru Using Compositional Analyses and X-Radiography

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Alfareros deste Inga: Pottery Production, Distribution and Exchange in the Tawantinsuyu" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Inka Empire (Tawantinsuyu), Inka polychrome pottery was used for state-sponsored purposes. This pottery was not produced solely in the imperial core and distributed to provincial contexts, but rather was produced by a diverse range of potters recruited from subject populations across the empire, working both part– and full–time for the state. These potters made pottery in their traditional and imperial styles, as well as hybrids between the two. Despite being made by a variety of producers, Inka Polychrome Pottery was highly standardized in form and decoration. This project investigates the production of both Inka polychrome and local pottery from the regional center of Pachacamac, the political center of the Ychsma polity and an oracle and pilgrimage center that was subjugated and expanded by the Inka during the Late Horizon (CE 1400 – 1532). Using compositional analysis of pastes and pigments with Neutron Activation Analysis and Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, morphometric analyses of form, and analysis of forming technique and sequence through X-radiography, this research attempts to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire (operational chain) of this pottery, which in turn reveals information about who these potters were and what their relationship was with the empire.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Alfareros deste Inga: Pottery Production, Distribution and Exchange in the Tawantinsuyu

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23507