Slipped and Scored: Network Analysis of Changing Ceramic Practice Centered on K’axob, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Embedded within any piece of pottery is the knowledge of the hands that made it and the knowledge of those who came before. This intergenerational exchange of knowledge, as manifested in the remains of pottery, can be tracked through the changes in slip, form, paste, and other identifying attributes over time using social network analysis methods of ceramic typology data. Centering focus on K’axob, Belize and radiating out to include ceramic data from sites across the Maya region, this project will explore changes in ceramic practice from the Preclassic to Early Classic Periods. The previous study on this same topic explored the transition from the Late Classic to Postclassic Periods. This project will examine changes in ceramic style, technology, and participation in communities related to pottery in the face of periods of change and crisis. These changes are tracked within the site of K’axob, across local sites, and regionally to chronologically map the ceramic representation of the geographic distribution of the exchange of knowledge.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53440