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The Lives of Painted Bowls at Ancestral Pueblos in East-Central Arizona

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Scott Van Keuren
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 (svankeur@uvm.edu)
Grace E. Cameron
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 (svankeur@uvm.edu)

Abstract

The appearance of iconographic-style pottery at fourteenth-century Pueblo villages in east-central Arizona marked an important shift in the decoration of pottery. These polychrome containers were painted with elaborate imagery that contrasts with earlier geometric-style traditions. Remarkably, though the type was circulated and copied throughout the region, we still know very little about how it was used. This paper addresses that issue by analyzing surface abrasions on a large corpus of White Mountain Red Ware whole vessels. Our research not only examines changes in the uses of Ancestral Pueblo ceramics during the late prehispanic period, but underscores the importance of use-alteration studies to interpreting the biographies of ancient objects.

La aparición de la cerámica de estilo iconográfico en período de Pueblo IV, en el centro-este de Arizona marcó un cambio importante en la decoración de la cerámica pintada. Estos recipientes policromos estaban decoradas con elaborados imágenes que contrasta con las tradiciones de estilo geométrico anteriores. Cabe destacar que, aunque el tipo se distribuyó y se copia en toda la región, aún sabemos muy poco acerca de cómo se utiliza. En este trabajo se aborda esta cuestión mediante el análisis de las abrasiones superficiales en un gran corpus de la White Mountain Red Ware vasijas completas. El estudio no sólo examina los cambios en los usos de la cerámica Ancestral Pueblo en el último período prehispánico, pero pone de relieve la importancia de los estudios de uso de alteración a la interpretación de las biografías de los objetos antiguos.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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References

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