Analyses of Pastes and Polychromy of Chupícuaro Pottery: A Diachronic Comparison Using a Noninvasive Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reassessing Chupícuaro–Cuicuilco Relationships in Light of Ceramic Production (Formative Mesoamerica)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pottery is one of the hallmarks of the societies that emerged in the present-day Acámbaro Valley known as the Chupícuaro culture (ca. 600–100 BC). The aesthetic features of Chupícuaro ceramics range from complex forms of monochrome ware to polychrome varieties based on three main colors: red, black, and beige. This work examines the pottery and color technology of a broad collection of Chupícuaro vessels. The goal of the research has been to identify the raw materials used to manufacture the coloring materials as well as the pottery clays to address the technological characteristics of the vessels from the early and late periods. For this purpose, a non-invasive analysis protocol has been developed that includes a wide range of analytical techniques such as False Color Infrared Imaging (FCIR), Optical Microscopy (MO), Fiber Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). This approach has been applied to a collection of objects from the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico and the archaeological excavations of the CHUPICERAM project. The results show differences in the composition of beige colors and black colors. An evaluation of the paste composition is also presented and discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Reassessing Chupícuaro–Cuicuilco Relationships in Light of Ceramic Production (Formative Mesoamerica)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39737.0