Castillo Decorated Ceramics as Boundaries Objects: A Reappraisal of the Tradición Norcosteña from Ceramic Technology (North Coast of Peru, Early Intermediate Period)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On the northern coast of Peru and throughout the Early Intermediate period, the frequent findings of Castillo Decorated effigy vessels in Virú (200 BC–AD 600/700) and Moche (AD 100–800) contexts have led several archaeologists to consider them as a northern coastal tradition. In this sense, these ceramics would have been produced by a community of potters independent of the elites, who possessed and transmitted their own technical traditions for nearly eight centuries. A recent study of the Virú and Moche ceramic production in the Virú, Moche, Chicama, and Lambayeque valleys allows us to reconsider this hypothesis. The analysis of the operative chain, and in particular the methods and techniques of shaping, reveals that these ceramics were mainly produced using a typical Virú technique, hammering, except for the Uhle Platform in Moche, where in some cases they were produced by hammering, and in others by coiling, a technique used to shape Moche plainwares. We propose here to apply the concept of boundaries objects to interpret the use of two distinct and simultaneous shaping techniques, to give a more dynamic account of the mechanisms that led to the spatial and chronological distribution of Castillo Decorated ceramics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36483.0