Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T21:23:07.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Reexamination of the Compositional Affiliations of Formative Period Whiteware from Highland Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Hector Neff ,
Ronald L. Bishop  and
Dean E. Arnold
Hector Neff
Affiliation:
Research Reactor Facility, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Ronald L. Bishop
Affiliation:
Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
Dean E. Arnold
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An earlier study (Rice 1977, 1978a) purportedly found compositional similarity between raw materials used by modern potters in the northern Valley of Guatemala and Formative period whiteware ceramics from sites in the valley, particularly the major highland center of Kaminaljuyu. The compositional similarity suggested that Formative whiteware was manufactured in the northern valley, and this inference in turn underpinned a model of the development of ceramic craft specialization. Methodological weaknesses in the earlier study cast some doubt on its conclusions. More recent compositional analyses of Formative whiteware indicate that, while whiteware probably was made within the zone from which Kaminaljuyu drew its ceramics, it almost certainly was not made within the northern Valley of Guatemala. The present study highlights some important technical and methodological advances in compositional studies made over the past decade.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , Fall 1990 , pp. 171 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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

Arnold, D.E. 1978a Ethnography of Pottery-Making in the Valley of Guatemala. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 327–400. The Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.E. 1978b Ceramic Variability, Environment, and Culture History among the Pokom in the Valley of Guatemala. In Spatial Organisation of Culture, edited by Hodder, I., pp. 39–60. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.E. 1985 Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.E., Neff, H., and Bishop, R.L. 1990 Compositional Analysis and “Sources” of Pottery: An Ethnoarcheological Approach. American Anthropologist (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, D.E., Rice, P.M., Jester, W.A., Deutsch, W.H., Lee, B.K., and Kirsch, R.I. 1978 Neutron Activation Analysis of Contemporary Pottery and Pottery Materials from the Valley of Guatemala. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 543–586. The Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar
Bishop, R.L. 1980 Aspects of Ceramic Compositional Modeling. In Models and Methods in Regional Exchange, edited by Fry, R.E., pp. 47–66. SAA Papers no. l.Google Scholar
Bishop, R.L. 1984 Análisis por activación de neutrones de la cerámica de El Mirador. Mesoamerica 7:103–111.Google Scholar
Bishop, R.L. and Neff, H. 1988 Compositional Data Analysis in Archaeology. In Archaeological Chemistry IV, edited by Allen, R.O., pp. 576–586. Advances in Chemistry Series 220. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Bishop, R.L., Rands, R.L., and Holley, G. 1982 Ceramic Compositional Analysis in Archaeological Perspective. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 5, edited by Schiffer, M.B., pp. 275–330. Academic Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, A.A. 1986 The Archaeology of Santa Leticia and the Rise of Maya Civilization, Middle American Research Institute, pub. 52. New Orleans.Google Scholar
Demarest, A.A., and Sharer, R.J. 1986 Late Preclassic Ceramic Spheres, Culture Areas, and Cultural Evolution in the Southeastern Highlands of Mesoamerica. In The Southeast Maya Periphery, edited by Urban, P.A. and Schortman, E.M., pp. 194–223. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, W.N. 1972 Identification of Potting Communities from Highland Guatemala through Neutron Activation Analysis. Unpublished master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Everitt, B.S. 1974 Cluster Analysis. Heinmann Educational, London.Google Scholar
Feinman, G., Kowalewski, S.A., and Blanton, R. 1984 Modeling Ceramic Production and Organizational Change in the Pre-Hispanic Valley of Oaxaca. In The Many Dimensions of Pottery: Ceramics in Archaeology and Anthropology, edited by van der Leeuw, S.E. and Pritchard, A.C., pp. 295–333. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Harbottle, G. 1976 Activation Analysis in Archaeology. In Radiochemistry: A Specialist Periodical Report, edited by Newton, G.W.A., pp. 33–72. The Chemical Society, Burlington House, London.Google Scholar
Harbottle, G. 1982 Provenience Studies Using Neutron Activation Analysis: The Role of Standardization. In Archaeological Ceramics, edited by Olin, J.S. and Franklin, A.D., pp. 67–77. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Kirsch, R. 1972 Identification through Neutron Activation Analysis of Clay Sources for Late and Terminal Formative White Ware Pottery from the Valley of Guatemala. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park.Google Scholar
Neff, H. 1984 Developmental History of the Plumbate Pottery Industry in the Eastern Soconusco Region, A.D. 600 through A.D. 1250. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Neff, H., and Bishop, R. L. 1988 Plumbate Origins and Development. American Antiquity 53(3):505–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neff, H., Bishop, R.L., and Arnold, D.E. 1988 Reconstructing Ceramic Production from Ceramic Compositional Data: A Guatemalan Example. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:339–348.Google Scholar
Neff, H., Bishop, R.L., and Bove, F.J. 1989 Compositional Patterning in Ceramics from Pacific Coastal and Highland Guatemala. Archeomaterials 3:97–109.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1977 Whiteware Pottery Production in the Valley of Guatemala: Specialization and Resource Utilization. Journal of Field Archaeology 4:221–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1978a Ceramic Continuity and Change in the Valley of Guatemala. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 511–542. The Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1978b Clear Answers to Vague Questions: Some Assumptions of Provenience Studies of Pottery. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 511–542. The Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1981 Evolution of Specialized Pottery Production: A Trial Model. Current Anthropology 22:219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, P.M., and Saffer, M. 1982 Cluster Analysis of Mixed-Level Data: Pottery Provenience As an Example. Journal of Archaeological Science 9:395–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shook, Edwin M., Hatch, Marion P., and Donaldson, Jamie 1979 The Ruins of Semetabaj, Dept. Solola, Guatemala. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, no. 41. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Stark, B.L., Heller, L., Nelson, F.W., Bishop, R.L., Pearsall, D.M., Whitley, D.S., and Wells, H. 1985 El Balsamo Residential Investigations: A Pilot Project and Research Issues. American Anthropologist 87:100–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wetherington, R.K. 1978a Descriptive Taxonomy of Kaminaljuyu Ceramics. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 51–114. Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar
Wetherington, R.K. 1978b The Ceramic Chronology of Kaminaljuyu. In The Ceramics of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by Wetherington, R.K., pp. 115–149. Pennsylvania State University Monograph Series on Kaminaljuyu, University Park.Google Scholar