Duck. Duck. Goose? A Ceramic Survey Grows into a Primer on Variability

Summary

This is an abstract from the "How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A systematic survey of archaeological vessels in the collections of the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture in Santa Fe revealed almost 100 bird form jars, frequently referred to as duck pots or shoe jars, from New Mexico and its border environs. The survey found, among other things, that not all of the Museum’s "duck pots" represent ducks. Dove-shaped jars were identified, along with at least one example of a swallow or swift. A preliminary assessment indicates that production, beginning by at least 700 AD, has shifted back and forth between utility wares and painted wares, and suggests that peak periods of manufacture may have occurred during the PII period in northwestern New Mexico (primarily painted wares) and during the PIV period along the upper Rio Grande (primarily plain wares). The study demonstrates the advantages museum collections provide for a broad overview of the persistence and variability of certain vessel forms and iconography through time and across space within a geographic region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24909