SAS Sponsored Session at the annual meeting of Society for American Archaeology 2023: Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences
By Charles Kolb, Honorary Associate Editor
The SAS is sponsoring a session entitled 'Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences' at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Portland (29 March to 2 April 2023). This is a continuation of the decades-long tradition of the Ceramic Ecology session that many of you might have attended and presented at the American Anthropological Association. The Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences session is organised by Kostalena Michelaki, Charles Kolb and Sandra Lopez Varela, with the latter two also acting as the chair of the session.
1. Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences: An introduction to the creation and sustenance of an international research network
Charles C. Kolb, Sandra L. López Varela and Kostalena Michelaki
In any academic discipline, the sociology of knowledge, involving the creation and sustenance of networks, is often as important as the knowledge itself to discover and disseminate scientific information. This session celebrates and reveals the critical role of Frederick R. Matson (†), Charles C. Kolb, and Louana Lackey (†) in creating and sustaining the knowledge of ceramic studies for three and a half decades. Through their work in writing, reviewing, and fostering an international and interdisciplinary climate of interaction Kolb and Lackey initially, then Kolb on his own, and finally with the help of López Varela and Michelaki, have brought together more than 300 scholars, practitioners, and students from at least fifteen nations in annual meetings at the American Anthropological Association. In 2023, Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences is looking forward to continuing this long tradition at the SAA by presenting research from around the world, at various scales, using various methods and theoretical approaches that remain true to potters and their pots. The Society for Archaeological Sciences, a vibrant association, supports this new future-looking venture standing up strongly for applying science and technology to serve humankind through archaeological practice.
2. The Mesoamerican Ceramic Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Database at MURR: History, Current Status, and Future Directions
In the nearly 35 years since the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) was founded, the Mesoamerican Ceramic NAA database has grown to almost 30,000 entries spanning Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and beyond. This paper presents the history of how the database came together, highlighting key contributions, remarkable findings, and significant debates. The scope and breadth of the current database will be discussed with particular attention to areas that provide ample opportunities for future collaborative research.
3. Compositional and Stylistic Analysis of Texcoco-Molded Censers and Molds from the Gulf Lowland Frontier of the Aztec Empire
Over the past 20 years a growing assemblage of Aztec-style ceramics, specifically Texcoco Molded censers and molds, has been recovered from sites throughout the northeastern Tochtepec province of the Triple Alliance Empire. In this presentation, we examine the chemical compositions, paste recipes, and decorative attributes and configurations of these censers, as well as the molds for their production. We compare imperial-style materials found within the western Tuxtla Mountains and the Eastern Lower Papaloapan Basin with undecorated ceramics made using long-enduring paste traditions. The point of this analysis is to determine the degree of affinity with existing ceramic resources and the products of ceramic communities of practice, as well as the potential modes of exchange and adoption of this non-local imperial style. We will consider a variety of models for incorporation, including the movement of pots, people, and ideas.
4. Salt and Plumbate: Late Classic Multi-crafting in Eastern Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico
Archaeological mounds within the mangrove zone west of the Rio Cahuacan, in far- southern Chiapas, Mexico, have dense surface remains of broken Plumbate pottery, solid ceramic cylinders, and various other kinds of pyro-technological evidence. Clays from the region match Tohil Plumbate chemical composition, thus solidifying the inference that the mounds are Tohil Plumbate production centers. But if so, the Plumbate potters must have been poor ceramic artisans who broke huge numbers of vessels during production. Alternatively, Plumbate may have been made to be used on site. With a history of salt production stretching back to Early Formative times, one possibility is that Plumbate vessels were used for brine boiling in the production of salt. I discuss this possibility in the light of both earlier and later salt-production assemblages of the Eastern Soconusco mangrove zone. I conclude that a multi-crafting perspective provides the best fit to archaeological evidence recovered from these sites.
5. Ceramic Production in Epiclassic Central Mexico: Strategies for Assessing Regional Variation with INAA, Paste Recipes, and Stylistic Choices
Epiclassic Central Mexico (ca. 550-850 A.D.) is characterized by competing city-states in which ceramic distribution aligns with a series of neighboring solar market economies. INAA compositional study provides key evidence for assessing multiscalar patterns of production of diagnostic and decorated ceramic wares in the Basin of Mexico and Tula regions. And when combined with stylistic and technological attributes, a more nuanced understanding of potting community practices provides insights into strategies for participation in the production and consumption of shared ceramic suites, notably the Coyotlatelco red-on-buff traditions. In addition, ceramic wares that are locally significant can begin to signal more specific pathways of interaction among individual settlements, such as Xajay tripods and the Epiclassic composite silhouette bowls. This presentation highlights a selection of examples to demonstrate ways in which compositional analysis, stylistic variation, and technological choices are documented within and between Epiclassic ceramic wares in order to signal patterns of significant interpretive value. Datasets are derived from survey and excavation from sites and projects across Central Mexico as part of Crider’s ongoing research in the Basin of Mexico and Tula regions.
6. Challenges in the Identification of Fresh Volcanic Glass Shards in Ancient Maya Pottery Sherds
The major components of ceramics consist of clay and temper. It is assumed that these components are local. The Maya lowlands are dominated by limestone, and its use as temper is ubiquitous. Therefore, the distinct presence of fresh volcanic ash in the Late Classic Period pottery is noteworthy. Efforts to identify a local volcanic source closer than 300km away have failed. In the course of our inquiry, we have made important discoveries. We had assumed that we could type the ash based on a suite of major and minor minerals, as the glass had experienced the greatest heat exposure in the eruption. While our first assessments showed distinctions, later investigation of time/temperature firing gradients demonstrated that there was alteration in the context of firing. Experiments focused on high silica ash that matched the archaeological samples include the rhyolitic California Bishop Tuff and the Ipopango THJ. Our report here is of the changes consistent with time and temperature firing experiments. Silica (Si) proves a stable element, while others, especially Sodium (Na) and Calcium, are volatile. We identify consistent changes and argue for caution when evaluating volcanic components of pottery; the process of firing is metamorphic.
7. The Diaspora of 18 th Century Mexican Figurines: the intersection of Spain, Mexico, and La Florida
In Spanish West Florida, a military presidio was established in 1698 to try to protect Spanish shipping and interests in the naturally deepwater port of the Pensacola Bay from constantly encroaching British and French pressure. Over the next 65 years the presidio was moved four times, enduring British-led Indian raids, French occupations, and eight hurricanes. The presidio was completely abandoned in 1763 when Florida was awarded to the British in the Treaty of Paris. All four locations have been relocated and extensively archaeologically and historically investigated. One result of this expansive study was the finding of 142 figurine fragments that come exclusively from the final two presidio locations, and are seemingly associated with the arrival of families and several groups of 100 young women brought from “central Mexico” to become wives of soldiers and tradesmen as the former Spanish garrisons transitioned into permanent settlements. We hope to present identification of a source area for these figurines, and others encountered in other eighteenth-century Florida shipwrecks, using PIXE, pXRF, and NAA analyses among others, thus providing a window into figurine production, export, and use for a time period for which we currently have no such information from Mexico itself.
8. ROBERT TYKOT – DISCUSSANT
9. Fine-scale Investigation of Changes in the Ceramic Production Using Sherd Temper in the Mt. Trumbull Area of the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument, Arizona.
More than 500 ceramic artifacts from four prehistoric sites in Pinellas County, Florida were analyzed non-destructively using a portable XRF spectrometer to address research questions about local production and potential movement or exchange over significant distances. All dating to the Safety Harbor Period (ca. 900-1500 AD), at least 100 diagnostic rim sherds from each of the four sites (Bayshore Homes, Maximo Point, Weeden Island, and Yat Kitischee) were analyzed for seven trace elements using a Bruker Tracer Vg, with results calibrated using known standards. The vast majority of the sherds tested have broadly similar compositions, indicating use of clay within this region, while there were a modest number of outliers suggesting some coming from further away.
In addition, subsets of 10 sherds from each site were also analyzed by neutron activation analysis (INAA) at MURR and by ICP mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) at USF. This multi-method approach was taken to test the performance of each and to determine the potential utility for sourcing/exchange studies of obtaining results for many more elements by using destructive methods. Furthermore, the ability to cross-calibrate data from these three methods allows direct comparison with results from other studies that have been conducted in Florida.
11.Urbanization and Ceramic Consumption at the late Neolithic settlement of Liangchengzhen
Excavations at the Longshan period settlement of Liangchengzhen in southeastern Shandong have uncovered large quantities and diverse forms of ceramic vessels from contexts representing each phase of occupation. This paper explores consumption patterns for ceramic vessels in one neighborhood during eight phases of occupation estimated to represent approximately 200 years. It compares consumption patterns for fine and coarse wares, discussing potential evidence for especially valued kinds of vessels recovered from different depositional contexts. Possible methods of ceramic distribution are discussed in relation to varieties of vessel form, surface treatment, and size over time.
12.New Insights into Bronze Age ceramic production in northwestern China: Petrographic analysis of Qijia and Shajing materials from the Andersson collections
The late Neolithic to late Bronze Age periods (ca. 2300-400BCE) in what is now northwestern China was a time of significant technological and social change. Based on limited excavation and survey, it has been suggested that major changes took place in subsistence technologies, including a potential shift from sedentary farming to mobile herding, as well as increasing use of metal items. Ceramics are also thought to reflect these transitions based on major changes in vessel form and surface treatment, however only preliminary analyses of ceramic technology from this time period have taken place. Here we use petrographic analysis of long-dormant collections of ceramics from the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess changes in ceramic technology and circulation between the Qijia cultural period (2300-1500BCE) and Shajing cultural period (1000-400BCE) in northwestern China. Our focus is on exploring whether paste recipes and other aspects of production shift alongside changes in ceramic form and surface treatment between the Qijia and Shajing periods, or whether there is long-term continuity in production practices.
13.Ceramic technology beyond the rim: Reconstruction (and firing) a late Neolithic Chinese kiln
The past several decades have seen a shift in the focus of ceramic studies in Neolithic China from ceramic products toward ceramic production, as scholars have pushed beyond typological analyses to investigate the people who made, handled, and used these wares. Despite this turn toward process, comparatively little attention is given to the many technologies that make the production of pottery possible: the paddles and anvils, tournettes or kick-wheels, decorative tools like rope and stamps, and kilns that Neolithic potters relied on for their craft. In this presentation, we explore the labor and logic of one such “supporting” technology through experimental archaeology. Using excavation reports as a guide, our multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, professional potters, and kiln builders attempted to reconstruct and fire a Neolithic kiln. Our results—both successes and failures—provide a deeper understanding of the complex material technology of these kilns, and offer new insights to the social, environmental, and economic entanglements of Neolithic ceramic production.
14. Micro-CT scanning with 3D image analysis of pore systems in sherds as a tool to understand performance characteristics of archaeological ceramics
Characterizing a ceramic pore system reveals information about use properties and functionality. Pores making up the system include some that are isolated and others with connections to other pores, some connected to the ceramic surface and others interior-only, and variation exists in pore size and shape and connection size and directness. The structure of this pore system impacts functional aspects of the ceramic such as permeability, liquid diffusion, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. Desktop high-resolution micro-CT systems generate images from sherd samples non- destructively with spatial resolution sufficient to measure many pore variables. Using the 3D image analysis software program Dragonfly, segmentation of pores from particles and matrix is improved with models from machine learning and deep learning with convolutional neural networks. A multi-stage image analysis protocol can then examine variables related to ceramic function such as total volume porosity, percentage of pores accessible to the surface versus isolated interior ones, statistical properties of pores related to size and shape, percentage of unconnected pores, average number of connections between pores, and the length, diameter, and directness of those connections; a porous microstructure analysis can also study the permeability and thermal conductivity of the ceramic system as a whole.
15.Pan-American Ceramics Project: Increasing the accessibility and interoperability of ceramic data in the digital age
Pottery is a powerful tool for understanding past societies. The timing and function of a site, the nature and rhythms of daily life, the social relations of site inhabitants with each other and with people from far away regions are questions archaeologists ask of ceramic data regularly. The power of such data can be greatly enhanced when they are digitized and aggregated into a common framework that expands their temporal and spatial breadth.
As an open-access, digital repository, the Pan-American Ceramics Project seeks to increase the accessibility and interoperability of ceramic data spanning from Canada to Argentina, and dating to all time periods, revolutionizing the breadth of research across international borders. Accomplishing this goal requires the formation of a collaborative network of experts in both ceramic analysis and the regional and temporal trends of pottery manufacture in ancient America. Such experts must include Native, descendent, locals, and other archaeologists, potters, and educators alike.
This presentation will illustrate the current functions of our web application, outline future capabilities in development, and serve as an invitation to those interested in joining our community by contributing their insights and data and advancing the practice of digital archaeology.
16. DAVE KILLICK - DISCUSSANT
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