Charles C. Kolb, Honorary Associate Editor for Archaeological Ceramic
Ceramic Ecology XXXV: Unsettling Landscapes
AAA Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA (November 12, 2022)
Chair: Kostalena Michelaki, Arizona State University
Discussant: Charles C. Kolb, National Endowment for the Humanities, USA (Retired)
Session Abstract: For 34 years, the Ceramic Ecology session at the American Anthropological Association has provided an open and supportive venue to present current research and insights on all aspects of ceramic studies: production, consumption, trade, and their economic, political, social, aesthetic, cosmological, and phenomenological implications. ‘Unsettling Landscapes’ is this year’s AAA theme, giving us a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of our research covering many aspects of ceramic studies. It is an opportunity to reflect on our responsibility in reckoning with disciplinary histories, harms, and possibilities; think about to whom are we giving evidence, toward what ends, and for whom are we writing. In this session, participants will approach these questions and present new data on archaeological ceramics, methodological applications, and insights into the struggles of pottery communities in today’s world.
Paper Abstracts
Mobilities of potters and pot painters in the ancient Mediterranean: the test cases of
Athens and Southern Italy
Eleni Hasaki* and Marco Serino**
*University of Arizona
*University of Turin, Italy
This paper will cover the mobility of potters and pot painters throughout the Greek world
between 600-300 BCE. It will approach the migration of artisans from the eastern Mediterranean
to Athens in the 6th century BCE and into neighboring cities of Corinth and Boeotia, and from
Athens to western cities in southern Italy, in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. The 6th century BCE
mobility phase was part of a coordinated incentivizing campaign to recruit foreign artisans from
eastern regions and bring them into Athens to expedite its government's cultural and political
dominance. Triggered by Perikles’ ambitious program, the 5th century BCE mobility from
Athens to western cities in southern Italy was accelerated by a prolonged civil war and a
pandemic. Here, we examine how these different mobility models influenced potters and pot
painters, as they adjusted to local ceramic ecologies for shape and slips and how pot-painters had
to modify their iconographical repertoire and their application on local shapes to understand
better serve the regional market requests. We critically approach previous mobility models by
suggesting a model of local adaptations of imported ceramics produced by local work crews.
Finally, we revisit the ceramics terminology (e.g., Corinthianizing or Atticizing) to capture and
explain the similarities between products made at different places.
Ceramic Evidence of the Development of El Pilar as a Major Center in the Late Preclassic
Anabel Ford*, Andrew Kinkella*, Sherman W. Horn III, Andrew Kinkella**, and Paulino
Morales***
*MesoAmerican Research Center, University of California Santa Barbara
** Moorpark College
***Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala
The scale and extent of monumental remains of construction at El Pilar – over 150 hectares
spread across two kilometers – attest to its position as a dominant center in the upper Belize
River Area in the Classic Period. In common with Belize Valley centers, El Pilar was founded in
the early Middle Preclassic as part of an early hierarchy of the local agricultural communities.
This initial period of construction appears in a dispersed deep excavations around the main Late
Classic public Plaza Copal. Reviewing the sequences of changes in the construction chronology
reveals that there was major architectural expansions at El Pilar in the Late Preclassic times.
New radiocarbon dates, stratigraphic reconstructions, and ceramic analysis results reveal the
massive scale of architectural investment at the public ceremonial core of El Pilar. We discuss
these new data and their implications for understanding the roots of power of the Classic Period
grandeur of El Pilar. 3.
Early Maya Ceramic Decoration: The nature and meaning of post-fire incised decoration
on the earliest ceramics of the Maya region (1000-700 BCE)
George J. Bey III (Millsaps College)
Around 1000 BCE communities across the Maya lowlands began producing pottery. These
ceramics appear at sites in the Peten and Belize up through the northern Maya Lowlands.
Associated with these ceramics are both simple and complex post-fired incised decorative motifs
that both distinguish and link these various early Maya communities together. The use of
postfired incised decoration is the dominant form of ceramic decoration throughout the early
Middle Preclassic (1000-700 BCE), to a large degree disappearing by the late Middle Preclassic
(700- 300 BCE). This paper explores the range of decoration associated with these early
ceramics and discusses the possible meanings of the motifs that are utilized by the Maya. Of
particular interest are the relations between these early decorative motifs and those of the nearby
Olmec region, how these motifs were used to define early Maya identity and why this approach
to ceramic decoration was abandoned at the end of the early Middle Preclassic. Also considered
is the theoretical issue of identifying decorative motifs versus complex systems of meaning in
early ceramics.
Modeling whole Household Ceramic Production in the Late Postclassic Tarascan State
Amy Hirshman, Department of Sociology and Anthropology West Virginia University
While women are often understood to be “the potters” in traditional ceramic production contexts,
verifying who is responsible for ceramic production in a household context is important in
understanding the broader political economy within early states. Regarding the emergence of the
Mesoamerican Tarascan State in the Mid to Late Postclasscic (AD 1000-1525), I have previously
argued that ceramic stylistic change in the Lake Pátzuaro Basin of western Mexico as the state
emerged was driven in part by household participation in the state symbolling iconographic
system. But I cannot assume that women were driving that change just because women tend to
be traditional potters. Moreover, archaeological data on Tarascan households are limited within
the region. This paper will compare the models for ceramic production from better-known
Mesoamerican cultures to identity a prospective model for whole household production in the
Tarascan case.
Ceramic Analysis Sheds Light on Interactions between a Small Residential Site (Box B) and Chaco Canyon, Northwest New Mexico ca. AD 1050-1130
Genevieve Woodhead PhD Candidate | Department of Anthropology | University of New
Mexico
Abstract: This study examines local and non-local ceramic sherds from the Box B site in
northern New Mexico (USA), 70 km north of the great regional hub of Chaco Canyon. The goal
of the study is to establish whether potters working at a small residential site on the edge of a
regional center’s sphere of influence were interacting with potters based in the center itself, in
this case, potters based in Chaco Canyon. According to macroscopic observations, sampled
sherds are local to the Box B site, imported from Chaco Canyon, or of an unidentifiable origin.
This study aims to determine where sherds that share qualities of both local and non-local pottery
were manufactured and by whom. Such research requires a clear understanding of the
environmental and geological context of pottery-making for differing regions of the northern US
Southwest. Ceramic compositional analyses and microscopy allow for the characterization of
archaeological pottery. In conjunction with knowledge of environmental and geologic resource
availability, such characterizations can help identify where pottery was made and whether it was
made using similar recipes and preparation techniques. For this study, scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) reveal the clay paste geochemistry
and forming techniques of local and non-local Box B pottery. Results suggest the possibility of
1) relocated small site potters applying established production processes to new material
resources or 2) centrally located potters emulating ceramic styles associated with more distant
regions.
A Pilot Study to Determine Protein Residue on Low-fired Ceramic Sherds
Joanne M. Mack,* John Fagan,** Mark E. Swisher, ** Cam Walker***
*Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame
**Archaeological Investigations Northwest; Archaeological Investigations Northwest
***Independent Researcher
Ceramic vessels have rarely been recovered archaeologically in western Oregon or northern
California. This may be the first study of its kind, where Cross-over Immunoelectrophosesis
(CIEP) was used to identify protein residues on Pacific Coast ceramics. On a sample of ten
Siskiyou Utility Ware sherds, three sherds contained protein residue from Subfamily Salmonidae
(Oncorhynchus); though tested for, no mammal protein residues were found. All ten sherds had
been recovered from archaeological excavations undertaken along the Upper Klamath and
Middle Rogue Rivers in southwestern Oregon. The results speak to the importance of salmon
species to pre-contact peoples, and suggest more usage of CIEP technique can be useful in
understanding traditional subsistence strategies.
Discussing Ceramic Ecology XXXV: Unsettling Landscapes
Charles C. Kolb, Retired
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