The Production of Blackware Pottery at Pachacamac and the Lurín Valley, Peru, during the Late Horizon: A Multi-method Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences 2024" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While pottery made to look black has existed in many regions in the Andes and through many time periods, the style sees widespread distribution and use during the Late Horizon, particularly in Inka contexts. Often made through firing in a reducing environment, blackware was a style common to the Chimú empire (located on Peru’s north coast), which was subjugated by the Inkas. Ethnohistorical and bioarchaeological evidence has also shown the forced resettlement of Chimú potters to other subject territories under Inka rule, working in these new locations to produce pottery in imperial decorative styles styles. Simultaneously, local potters in subject territories paid tribute to the Inka empire through the production of Inka styles of pottery, emulating the forms and designs but using their traditional technologies for production. In this study, we examine the production of blackware pottery using thin section petrography, neutron activation analysis, and raman spectroscopy to address several questions: where was this pottery produced, and what techniques were used to produce it (and how do these relate to other styles of pottery local to the region)? And, how was the polished black finish of the pottery achieved?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences 2024

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37840.0