A Monte Carlo Approach to Estimating Plausible Ceramic Similarity Values from Fabric Characterizations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ceramic characterization studies often depend on estimates of similarities and differences in assemblages drawn from relatively small samples to address questions regarding a range of social patterns and processes. In most cases, such characterizations do not consider uncertainty due to sampling error nor do they consider in detail the relationship between characterized samples and whole assemblages. We introduce a method that allows ceramicists to extrapolate plausible values and ranges for ceramic diversity and similarity values between contexts based on limited observed data (i.e., petrographic fabrics or chemical reference groups) using a Monte Carlo simulation. We use this method to evaluate the spatiotemporal consistency of ceramic production among potters at the West Mexican center of La Quemada, Zacatecas. Our study relies on a relatively small petrographic sample of 297 sherds (2.86% of site assemblage) belonging to 19 pottery types, each having been assigned to one of four fabric classes. Using these data with site-wide ceramic frequency data, we generate estimates and error ranges of the plausible similarities between contexts across the site in terms of shared fabrics that crosscut ceramic types. We suggest that this methodology has wide-reaching applications at various spatial scales and using different types of characterization data.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Scaling Potting Networks: Recent Contributions from Ceramic Petrography   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32651