Conference review: Sessions related to ceramic studies at the annual meeting organised by the American Anthropological Association in association with the Canadian Anthropology Society

By Charles Kolb, associate editor of archaeological ceramics

The American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) 118^th Annual Meeting was held in conjunction with the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, 20-24 November 2019. The theme for the joint meeting was “Changing Climates: Struggle, Collaboration, and Justice / Changer d’air: Lutte, collaboration et justice.” Only ten presentations concerned ceramic materials of which two were posters (AAA assigns them to what they call “Gallery Sessions”) while six oral presentations with a discussant were in a single panel, and the last two volunteered papers (on residue analysis and petrography, respectively) were in separate sessions devoted to regional archaeology. 

In a session titled “Changing Climates for Mesoamerican Archaeology: Collaboration across Canada” organized by Geoffrey McCafferty (University of Calgary) and Cara Tremain (Langara College), six oral presentations focused on different topics of Mesoamerican studies, including urbanism, diets, migration, and museum collections, and paleo-genetic.  T. Michael Blake (University of British Columbia), Sonia Zarrillo (University of British Columbia), Camilla Speller (University of British Columbia), Francisco Valdez (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Marseille, France), Terry Powis (Kennesaw State University), Claire Lanaud (AGAP, University Montpellier, CIRAD, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, Montpellier, France), and Nilesh Gaikwad (Gaikwad Steroidomics). “New approaches to tracing ancient cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) use in Mesoamerica.” The group presented recent archaeological and paleo-genetic research documenting that the origins of Mesoamerican cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) use and domestication can be traced to the Upper Amazon regions of northern South America as early as 5300 years ago. They explored the implications of these recent findings for their new research on archaeological collections of artifacts from Mexico and Central America aimed at helping to better understand the timing, distribution, and range of uses for cacao as the plant was moved northwards out of its South American homeland. The group also presented preliminary results of a pilot project to test collections of ceramics from well-documented archaeological contexts in order to find three lines of evidence of cacao use: absorbed theobromine residues, starch grains, and ancient DNA. 

A second paper was presented by another international team: Jennifer Meanwell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Elizabeth Paris (University of Calgary), and Roberto Lopez Bravo (Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas). “Ceramic Production and Exchange Networks in the Jovel Valley of Highland Chiapas.” The authors presented the results of new petrographic analysis of pottery fragments from the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas. Previous petrographic results from Early Postclassic period pottery excavated from a large hilltop residence at Moxviquil in 2009, suggested differential production strategies, raw materials, and levels of specialization for various wares. 

The two separate poster presentations were by scholars working in Peru or Belize:  Daiana Rivas-Tello (Brown University) “Keeping Pottery Present: Examining Colonial Impacts and Legacies on Ceramic Production in the Chachapoyas Region, Peru.” In this poster, she presented results on attribute and ceramic paste analysis conducted with a Dino-Lite microscope and on ceramics from the site of Purun Llaqta del Maino, dating to the Late Intermediate Period (ca. 1200-1470) and early Spanish colonial period (ca. 1570-1650). Elizabeth Sills (University of Texas at Tyler) “Ancient Maya Pottery Standardization at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize.” In this presentation, she reviewed the results of measurements of the diameters of salt pots and support vessels recovered from underwater excavations at the Paynes Creek Salt Works. 

The abstracts of the six papers in the Ceramic Ecology XXXIII were published in the previous issue of the SAS Bulletin 42(3):4 (Fall 2019) and blog http://socarchsci.blogspot.com/2019/09/upcoming-conference-alert-ceramic.htmlSeptember 15, 2019. There was a slight change in the original agenda as one co-author withdrew and her colleague (Anabelle Ford) presented a slightly different paper. 

“Ceramic Ecology XXXIII: Advances in Ceramic Research” was scheduled for Friday afternoon 22 November 2019 and organized by Kostalena Michelaki (Arizona State University) and Sandra L. Lopez-Varela (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), and chaired by Sandra Lopez-Varela. The discussant for CE33 was Carla M. Sinopoli, University of New Mexico, Director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kostalena (a University of Michigan Ph.D. who previously taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, for recruiting ten Canadians to participate in CE33 and making this symposium one of the most memorable we have ever had. The papers in order of presentation in were: 

Charles C. Kolb (Independent Scholar; and Retired, National Endowment for the Humanities) “Central Asian Hellenistic-Seleucid, Greco-Bactrian, and Kushan Period Red-Slipped Wares Revisited.” Charlie reviewed ceramic research beginning in the 1960s on unique buff-colored tableware enhanced with a matte red slip and further decorated with streak burnishing in simple geometric patterns, illustrated but not described, by Sir Aurel Stein (1928, 1931). Initially found on sites in Baluchistan and southern Afghanistan, it has since been recovered from numerous excavations in northern Afghanistan (Bactra, Ai Khanoum, and Aq Kupruk) and more recently in southern Uzbekistan (Tchingiz-Tepe, Kampyr Tepe, and Zar Tepe). The only archaeometric analyses prior to the year 2000 were thin-section petrography by Kolb (1973, 1983) and a traditional descriptive study of recently excavated sherds from Bactra was reported by Maxwell Jones (2012). He reviewed comparanda, assessed geographic site distributions in Central Asia related to chronological periods, and correlated petrographic data with more recent findings and the archaeometric analyses. The discussant reminded him of similar red wares in the Kushan period of northern India, and attendee Mitch Allen provided information on unpublished studies of a similar ware from Kandahar excavated by William Truesdale in the 1950s and little-known finds from Iranian Seistan.

Kent D. Fowler, Elizabeth Walker, Haskel Greenfield, and Jon Ross (all four, University of Manitoba) and Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University). “Fingerprints and the Identity of Ancient Potters: Recent Research from the Early Bronze Age Levant.” Grounded in experimental and forensic research, Kent and his colleagues have developed an identification framework using a combination of ridge breadth and density of epidermal prints to identify the respective age and sex of past potters. The method presents a means for inferring manufacturing techniques and handling gestures, accounts for the shrinkage of fabrics, uses a modified version of the Kamp et al. (1999) regression equation to estimate age, and correlates ridge breadth to data from populations with the most relevant ancestry to infer sex. A case study demonstrated that fingerprints on pottery from the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2850-2500 BCE) near the city-state of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, were discernable. Two-thirds of fingerprints were made by adult men and teenage boys and the remainder by adult women and teenage girls. This pattern contrasted with the EB in northern Mesopotamia, which suggests women no longer made pottery after cities and states were established in the region and the task fell to male potters suggesting cooperative labor organization. 

Anabelle Ford (MesoAmerican Research Center, University of California Santa Barbara) “Late Classic Maya House Belongings as Seen from an Elite Compound at El Pilar.” El Pilar is an ancient Maya city located along the present Belize-Guatemala border. Ford and her colleagues have conducted three transect surveys, excavated and examined 236,000 sherds, defined 20 ceramic attributes and classified vessels by form (serving, cooking, drinking, etc.), which is a critical component in the analysis of their possible functions. A general understanding of vessel diversity for Late and Terminal Classic Maya residential units has been defined. She considers how those vessels are distributed in an elite compound with five major stone and typical perishable structures that surround a plaza. Questions we consider are how bowls, jars, plates, and vases (the latter are drinking vessels) can help us understand the diachronic variation in activities in the house compound. 

Joel Palka (Arizona State University) “The Tale of Protohistoric Maya Ceramic Urns from Lake Petha, Chiapas, Mexico: Context, Iconography, Data, Surprises.” His studies have led to some surprising results regarding Maya use of the Petha urns, their archaeological and cultural-historical contexts, and the artists that made them. He discussed the cylindrical shape of the urns (some were lidded), the function of the urns, their iconography (Mountain Glyph, God F and L, tobacco leaf ear and grape leaf decorations), similarities to urns depicted in Codex Borgia, and the results of INAA compositional analysis of the ceramics. The vessels are typically recovered from niches in limestone caves and are nearly similar to vessels in the Museo de los Altos, Chiapas, and nearly the same as those recovered from excavations by Martin Vann (Albion College). The urns were produced from the same clays in the same workshop. His results have interesting implications for the concept, creation, and use of so-called idols and incense burners in Mesoamerica and the people who made them.

Amy St. John (Western University), Gregory Braun (University of Toronto, Mississauga), Joe Petrus (Laurentian University), Louis Lesage (Huron-Wendat Nation), and Alicia Hawkins (Laurentian University). “Using a multi-method ceramic analysis to investigate Huron-Wendat ties to ethnicity and territory.” To investigate the oral tradition that remembers both the connection between the Huron-Wendat ancestors and the St. Lawrence Valley and understanding that the HWN people have long played a role as diplomats, the team examined how this changes our understanding of the archaeological record. The nature of the relationship between HWN ethnicity and territory can be explored through the study of ceramic technological practices as the product of a community of potters. The research area encompasses the north shore of Lake Ontario and Huronia, the St. Lawrence Valley, and the Canadian Shield. They employed the well-established method of ceramic petrography, non-invasive micro CT scanning, and LA- ICP-MS on pre-existing archaeological collections to explore how pots were produced. Results indicate that methods of clay selection, ceramic production and manufacture (stack vs. coiled) may align more closely with HWN perceptions of ethnicity and ancestral relationships than traditional archaeological “cultures” based on ceramic decoration, a notable difference in defining communities of practice. 

Kostalena Michelaki (Arizona State University), Gregory Braun (University of Toronto, Mississauga), and Ronald Hancock (McMaster University). “Form and Process: Combining Typological and Chaîne Opératoire Approaches to Understand Neolithic Calabrian Pots and Potters.”  The paper focused on ceramic materials from two Early-Middle Neolithic sites in Southwest Calabria, Italy (Umbro Neolithic and Penitenzeria), which had previously been divided into four types, based on the nature, or absence of surface decoration and/or their fabric. By examining the complete production sequence, from the acquisition of raw materials, to the final firing of these ceramics, the team demonstrated that there were only two major “ways of doing” that separated the production of the majority of ceramics -- divided typologically into Stentinello, Impressed, and Undecorated -- from that of a small percentage of ceramics-known as Buff, or figulina. They also juxtaposed the formal (typological) and process-focused (chaîne opératoire) approaches to the same ceramic material to reflect on how they impact our understanding of ancient potters and their pots.  The production practices were shared over a millennium.