Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T18:10:46.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making and Breaking Pots in the Chaco World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

H. Wolcott Toll
H. Wolcott Toll*
Affiliation:
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, NM [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Manufacture and movement of pottery has a complex and changing history in the ancestral pueblo region. By the time great houses were being built in the Chaco sphere, four wares were in use and some areas were supplying large quantities of pots to the sites in Chaco Canyon. Widespread stylistic trends indicate mechanisms of communication and shared ideals over a huge area. Ceramics are an index of how large quantities of everyday items were transported more than 60 km to Chaco. The similarity of source and form assemblages at small sites and great houses demonstrates the close link between the two kinds of sites. The scale and layout of great houses and layering in great mounds associated with them are suggestive of periodic events that are components of Renfrew"s model of central Chaco as the location of devotional events. Scrutiny of layer contents indicates that such events were variable, and that lithics and ceramics from a single geographic source seem to be independently transported. Different areas may have been represented differently at different events, but layers always retain some of their complex composition of sources.

Résumé

Résumé

La fabricación y el movimiento de cerámica tienen una historia compleja y variable en la región ancestral Pueblo Durante el tiempo de construcción de las Casas Grandes se utilizaron cuatro tipos y áreas especificas suministraron grandes cantidades de ollas a los sitios del Cañon Chaco. La distribución de modos estilísticos larga distancia señala la existencia de métodos de comunicación e ideas comunes dentro de una región enorme. La cerámica es índice que marca el movimiento de cantidades grandes de obyetos cotidianos transportados al Cañón desde lugares a más de 60 km de distanca. La semejanza defuentes de origen y rasgos formales los conjuntos de cerámicos de los sitios pequeños y ésos de las Casas Grandes demuestra los enlaces entre los dos tipos de sitios. Las escalas y los diseños de las Casas Grandes tanto como le estratigrafía de sus montículos sugieren eventos periódicos que corresponden a los componentes del modelo de Renfrew que presenta Chaco como centro de eventos piadosos. Cuando se escudriña los contenidos de los estratos es obvio que estos eventos fueron variables, y que la lítica y la cerámica fueron transportadas en tiempos diferentes, aún cuando procedieron del mismo lugar de origen. Areas diferentes hubieran sido representadas en eventos distintos. pero las capas estratigráficas siempre retienen huellas de su composición compleja defuentes.

Type
Special Section
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 56 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Akins, N. J. 1986 A Biocultural Approach to Human Burials from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 9. Branch of Cultural Research, National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Akins, N. J. 2001 Chaco Canyon Mortuary Practices : Archaeological Correlates of Complexity. In Lives from the Past : Mortuary Studies from the Ancient Southwest, edited by Mitchell, D. R. and Brunson, J.-Hadley. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. in press.Google Scholar
Betancourt, J. L., and Van Devender, T. R. 1981 Holocene Vegetation in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Science 214 : 656–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernardini, W. 1999 Reassessing the Scale of Social Action at Pueblo Bonito. Kiva 64 : 447–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blinman, E. 1989 Potluck in the Protokiva : Ceramics and Ceremonialism in Pueblo I Villages. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by Lipe, W. D. and Hegmon, M., pp. 113–124. Occasional Papers of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, No. 1. Cortez, Colorado.Google Scholar
Breternitz, C. D. 1982 Chronology : Dating the Bis sa'ani Community. In Bis sa’ ani : ALate Bonito Phase Community on EscavadaWash, Northwest New Mexico, vol. 1, edited by Breternitz, C. D., Doyel, D. E., and Marshall, M. P., pp. 61–70. Navajo Nation Papers in Anthropology No. 14. Window Rock, Arizona.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E. M. 1987 Elite and Utilitarian Crafts in the Aztec State. In Specialization, Exchange, and Complex Societies, edited by Brumfiel, E. M. and Earle, T.K. pp. 102–118. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bubemyre, T, and Mills, B. J. 1993 Clay Oxidation Analysis. In Across the Colorado Plateau : Anthropological Studies for the Transwestern Pipeline Expansion Project, Volume XVI, Interpretation of Ceramic Artifacts, edited by Mills, B. J., Goetze, C. E., and Zedefio, M. N., pp. 235–277. Office of Contract Archeology and Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Cameron, C. M. 1987 Chipped Stone from Pueblo Alto. In Investigations at the Pueblo Alto Complex, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 1975-1979, vol. 3, part 1 : Artifactual and Biological Analyses, edited by Mathien, F. J. and Windes, T.C. pp. 231–278. Publications in Archeology 18F, Chaco Canyon Studies. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Coe, S. D., and Coe, M. D. 1996 The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Costin, C. L., and Hagstrum, M. B. 1995 Standardization, Labor Investment, Skill, and the Organization of Ceramic Production in Late Prehispanic Highland Peru. American Antiquity 60 : 619–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danson, E. B. 1957 An Archaeological Survey of West Central New Mexico and East Central Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 44(1). Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
DeBoer, W R. 2001 On and Off Again Complexity from South America to the Southwest. In Exploring the Future of Southwestern Archaeology, the Durango Conference, September, 1995, edited by Sebastian, L. and Phillips, D. A.. New Mexico Council Special Publication No. 3, Albuquerque, in press.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M. 1992 An Outside Perspective on Chaco Canyon. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 177–182. Anthropological Papers No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Franklin, H. H. 1982 Ceramic Analysis of Nineteen Sites in the Bis sa'ani Community. InBis sa'ani : A Late Bonito Phase Community on Escavada Wash, Northwest New Mexico, edited by Breternitz, C. D., Doyel, D. E., and Marshall, M. P., pp. 873–934. Navajo Nation Papers in Anthropology No. 14. Navajo Nation Cultural Resource Management Program, Window Rock, Arizona.Google Scholar
Hagstrum, M. B. 1985 Measuring Prehistoric Ceramic Craft Specialization : A Test Case in the American Southwest. Journal of Field Archaeology 12 : 65–75.Google Scholar
Hagstrum, M. B. 1995 Creativity and Craft : Household Pottery Traditions in the Southwest. In Ceramic Production in the American Southwest, edited by Mills, B. J. and Crown, P.L. pp. 281–299. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Harris, M. 1974 Cows, Pigs, Wars, andWitches. Vintage-Random House, New York.Google Scholar
Hawley, F. M. 1930 Field Manual ofPrehistoric Southwestern Pottery Types. The University of New Mexico Bulletin No. 291, Anthropological Series 1(4), Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, K., and van Hartesveldt, E. 1998 Prehistoric Ceramics of the Puerco Valley, Arizona : The 1995 Chambers-Sanders Ceramic Conference. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series No. 7. Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Hensler, K. N. 1997 Anasazi Ceramic Traditions : A View from the Cove. In Anasazi Community Development in Cove-Redrock Valley : Final Report on the Cove-Red Valley Archaeological Project Along the N33 Road in Apache County, Arizona, edited by Reed, P. F. and Hensler, K.N. pp. 22.1-22.188. Navajo Nation Archaeology Department. Window Rock, Arizona.Google Scholar
Judd, N. M. 1954 The Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections No. 124. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Kantner, J. 1996 Political Competition among the Chaco Anasazi of the American Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 15 : 41–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohler, T.A. 1997 Public Architecture and Power in Pre-Columbian North America. Paper presented at the International Symposium “Power, Monuments, and Civilization, Nara, Japan. Santa Fe Institute Working Paper 98-03-022.Google Scholar
Kramer, C. 1985 Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 14 : 77–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lekson, S. H. 1991 Settlement Pattern and the Chaco Region. In Chaco and Hohokam : Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American SoMr/iwraf, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W J., pp. 31–55. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Mahoney, N. M. 2000 Redefining the Scale of Chacoan Communities. In Great House Communities across the Chacoan Landscape, edited by Kantner, J. and Mahoney, N.M. pp. 17–27. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 64. Tucson.Google Scholar
Marshall, M. P., Stein, J. R., Loose, R., and Novofny, J. 1979 Anasazi Communities of the San Juan Basin. Public Service Company of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
McKenna, P. J., and Toll, H. W. 1984 Ceramics. In The Architecture and Material Culture of 29SJ1360, edited by McKenna, P. J., pp. 103–222. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 7. National Park Service, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
McKenna, P. J., and Toll, H. W. 1991 Ceramics from 29SJ633, the Eleventh Hour Site. In Excavations at 29SJ633 : The Eleventh Hour Site, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, edited by Mathien, F. J., pp. 139–205. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 10. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Mindeleff, V. 1891 A Study of Pueblo Architecture in Tusayan and Cibola. Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Reprinted by Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Mills, B. J., Carpenter, A. J., and Grimm, W. 1996 Sourcing Chuskan Ceramic Production : Petrographic and Experimental Analyses. Kiva 62 : 261–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neitzel, J. E., and Bishop, R. L. 1991 Neutron Activation of Dogoszhi Style Ceramics : Production and Exchange in the Chacoan Regional System. Kiva 56 : 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peckham, S. 1990 From this Earth : the Ancient Art of Pueblo Pottery. Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Peckham, S., and Wilson, J. P. 1964 Chuska Valley Ceramics. Unpublished manuscript, Museum of New Mexico.Google Scholar
Pepper, G. H. 1996 [1920] Pueblo Bonito. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Plog, S. 1980 Stylistic Variation in Prehistoric Ceramics, Design Analysis in the American Southwest. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Post, S. S., and Lakatos, S. A. 1995 Santa Fe Black-on-white Pottery Firing Features of the Northern Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico. In Of Pots and Rocks : Papers in Honor of A. Helene Warren, edited by Duran, M. S. and Kirkpatrick, D.T. pp. 141–153. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico 21. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Powers, R. P., Gillespie, W B., and Lekson, S. H. 1983 The Outlier Survey : A Regional View of Settlement in the San Juan Basin. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 3. National Park Service, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Purcell, D. E. 1993 Pottery Kilns of the Northern San Juan Anasazi Tradition. Thesis, M. A., Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Roberts, F. H. H. 1927 The Ceramic Sequence in the Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, and Its Relation to the Cultures of the San Juan Basin. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rye, O. S. 1976 Keeping Your Temper Under Control : Materials and Manufacture of Papuan Pottery. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 9 : 106–137.Google Scholar
Saitta, D. J. 1997 Power, Labor, and the Dynamics of Change in Chacoan Political Economy. American Antiquity 62 : 7–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelberg, J. D. 1994 Analogy, Complexity, and Regionally-Based Perspectives. In Recent Research on Chaco Prehistory, edited by Judge, W. J. and Schelberg, J.D. pp. 5–21. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 8. National Park Service, Albuquerque. Views of Sociopolitical Organization. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 23–31. Anthropological Papers No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sebastian, L., and Toll, H. W. 1987 Historic Structure Evaluation Report : The Chacoan Outliers of Twin Angels and Kin Nizhoni. Prepared for the Bureau of Land Management. Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Shepard, A. O. 1963 Beginnings of Ceramic Industrialization : An Example from the Oaxaca Valley. Notes from a Ceramic Laboratory 2. Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Smith, W. R. 1977 The Fiesta System and Economic Change. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Stark, Barbara L. 1995 Problems in Analysis of Standardization and Specialization in Pottery. In Ceramic Production in the American Southwest, edited by Mills, B. J. and Crown, P.L. pp. 231–267. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Stein, J. R. and Lekson, S. H. 1992 Anasazi Ritual Landscapes. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 87–100. Anthropological Papers No. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Stein, J. R. and McKenna, P. J. 1988 An Archeological Reconnaissance of a Late Bonito Phase Occupation near Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico. Division of Anthropology, Branch of Cultural Resource Management, Southwest Cultural Resources Center, National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Stevenson, M. C. 1904 The Zuni Indians : Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, Bureau of American Ethnology Twenty-Third Annual Report. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stoltman, J. B. 1999 The Chaco-Chuska Connection : In Defense of Anna Shepard. In Pottery and People : A Dynamic Interaction, edited by Skibo, J. M. and Feinman, G.M. pp. 9–24. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Swarthout, J., and Dulaney, A. 1982 A Description of Ceramic Collections from the Railroad and Transmission Line Corridors. Coronado Series 5, Museum of Northern Arizona Research Paper No. 26. Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W. 1985 Pottery, Production, and Public Architecture and the Chaco Anasazi System. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W. 1990 A Reassessment of Chaco Cylinder Jars. In Clues to the Past : Papers in Honor of William Sundt, edited by Duran, M. S. and Kirkpatrick, D.T. pp. 273–305. Archaeological Society of New Mexico Papers No. 16. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W. 1991 Material Distributions and Exchange in the Chaco System. In Chaco and Hohokam : Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American Southwest, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W.J. pp. 77–107. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W., Blinman, E., and Wilson, C. D. 1992 Chaco in the Context of Ceramic Regional Systems. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by Doyel, D. E., pp. 147–157. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Anthropological Papers No. 5. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W, and McKenna, P. J. 1987 The Ceramography of Pueblo Alto. In Investigations at the Pueblo Alto Complex, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 1975-1979, vol. 3, part 1, Artifactual and Biological Analyses, edited by F. J Mathien and Windes, T. C., pp. 19–230. Publications in Archeology 18F, Chaco Canyon Studies. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W, and McKenna, P. J. 1992 The Rhetoric and the Ceramics, Discussion of Types, Functions, Distributions and Sources of the Ceramics of 29SJ 627. In Excavations at 29SJ 627, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, vol. 2 : The Artifact Analyses, edited by Mathien, F. J., pp. 37–248. Reports of the Chaco Center No. 11. Branch of Cultural Research, National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W, and McKenna, P. J. 1993 The Testimony of the Spadefoot Ceramics. In The SpadefootToadSite : Investigations at29SJ629, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, vol. 2, edited by Windes, T. C., pp. 15–134. Reports of the Chaco Center 12, National Park Service. Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W, and McKenna, P. J. 1997 Chaco Ceramics. In Ceramics, Lithics, and Ornaments of Chaco Canyon,vol. 1,edited byMathien, F. J., pp. 17–215. Publications in Archeology 18G, Chaco Canyon Studies. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Toll, H. W, McKenna, P. J., and Windes, T. C. 1997 Ceramic Group Definitions. In Ceramics, Lithics, and Ornaments of Chaco Canyon, vol. 1, edited by Mathien, F. J., Appendix 2A, pp. 216–443. Publications in Archeology 18G, Chaco Canyon Studies. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, R. 1997 The Andrews Great House Community : A Ceramic Chronometric Perspective. Kiva 63 : 137–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vivian, R. G. 1990 The Chacoan Prehistory of the San Juan Basin. Academic Press, San Diego.Google Scholar
Vivian, R. G. 1991 Chacoan Subsistence. In Chaco and Hohokam : Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American Southwest, edited by Crown, P. L. and Judge, W.J. pp. 57–75. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Washburn, D. K. 1980 The Mexican Connection : Cylinder Jars from the Valley of Oaxaca. InNew Frontiers in the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Southwest, edited by Riley, C. L. and Hedrick, B.C. pp. 70–85. Illinois State Academy of Science, Transactions : 72(4): 70–85. Springfield.Google Scholar
Wilcox, D. 1993 The Evolution of the Chaco Polity. InThe Chimney Rock- Archaeological Symposium, edited by Malville, J. M. and Matlock, G., pp. 76–90. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report RM-227. Fort Collins, Colorado.Google Scholar
Wilshusen, R. H., and Ortrnan, S. G. 1999 Rethinking the Pueblo I Period in the San Juan Drainage : Aggregation, Migration, and Cultural Diversity. Kiva 64 : 369–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, C. D. 1998a Ceramic Trends in the Jackson Lake Locality. Manuscript in progress, Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. D. 1998b Ceramic Trends in the Barker Arroyo Locality. Manuscript in progress, Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. D., Blinman, E., Skibo, J. M., and Schiffer, M. B. 1996 Designing Southwestern Pottery : A Technological and Experimental Approach. In Interpreting Southwestern Diversity : Underlying Principles and Overarching Patterns, edited by Fish, P. R. and Reid, J.J. pp. 249–256. Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers No. 28. Tempe.Google Scholar
Windes, T. C. 1977 Typology and Technology of Anasazi Ceramics. In Settlement and Subsistence along the Lower Chaco River, edited by Reher, C. A., pp. 279–370. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Windes, T. C. 1987 Investigations at the Pueblo AltoComplex, vol.2, Architecture and Stratigraphy. Publications in Archeology 18F, Chaco Canyon Studies. National Park Service, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Zedeno, M. N., James, B., Burton, J., and Mills, B. J. 1993 Ceramic Compositional Analyses. In Across the Colorado Plateau : Anthropological Studies for the Transwestern Pipeline Expansion Project, Volume XVI, Interpretation of Ceramic Artifacts, by Mills, B. J., Goetze, C. E., and Zedeno, M. N., pp. 187–234. Office of Contract Archeology and Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Zedeno, M. N., and Mills, B. J. 1993 Ceramic Production and Distribution : Introduction and Problem Definition. In Across the Colorado Plateau : Anthropological Studies for the Transwestern Pipeline Expansion Project, Volume XVI, Interpretation of Ceramic Artifacts, by Mills, B. J., Goetze, C. E., and Zedeno, M. N., pp. 175–185. Office of Contract Archeology and Maxwell Museum, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque.Google Scholar