Diaguita Pottery, Technological Traditions and Changes during the Late Intermediate and Late Periods: A Petrographical and Chemical Approach

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Studies of Diaguita pottery have advanced towards the definition of decorative styles. In this regard, new studies and radiocarbon dating from the El Olivar archaeological site have significantly contributed to a new understanding of pottery traditions and chronological assignments of ceramic styles. The purpose of this work is to explore pottery traditions and their changes from a technological perspective that allows us to delve into the relationship between production practices and the formation of cultural entities. Specifically, we seek to approach technological traditions and their possible changes through the study of technological choices, especially the selection of raw materials and the formulation of paste recipes, using an archaeometric perspective. In this work, we combine petrographic analysis with neutron activation analysis of ceramics from the El Olivar site in Coquimbo, Chile. The results indicate that raw materials were acquired locally and pottery production occurred under two different technological traditions characterized by the temper selection (diorites and volcanic rocks respectively). Additionally, the chemical results show some variability, which may imply the use of different clay sources, possibly indicating different production groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40110.0