San Jacinto and the Origins of Pottery Making in the Americas: A Technological Perspective

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Excavations at various archaeological sites located in the northern coast of Colombia have yielded evidence of early ceramic production and, in the case of San Jacinto, the earliest so far unearthed in the Americas, dating back to 6000 years BP. San Jacinto ceramics are characterized by the use of an organic-tempered clay and the presence of highly decorated lugs. Due to the incipient stage of ceramic manufacture during the occupation of the site, an experimental phase is expected; hence, a high variability in technological, compositional, and decorative attributes is likewise to be expected. In this paper, the results of a techno-compositional analysis carried out by means of digital microscopy to a sample of ceramic sherds from San Jacinto are presented and discussed. These results confirm the technological and compositional variability within the sample and provide evidence for a heterogenous early ceramic production. Consequently, San Jacinto pottery evinces the nature of early ceramic production as an individual, nonspecialized practice and constitutes the starting point for a broader research program focused on understanding the transition from individual to collective manufacture or from nonspecialized to specialized production in the Americas.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36360.0