This paper explores a particular ceramic type, Vista Alegre Striated, an assumed locally produced utilitarian cooking vessel, recovered at the coastal Maya site of Vista Alegre during the Terminal Classic period (AD 800-1100). This study investigates the variations present within this type and how these differences inform production practices at the site and in the region. I use a three-point comparison of recovery locations: a pit feature at the site representing a single depositional episode, intrasite recovery locations, and a regional sample. Through these analyses I highlight various diversities in rim formations that suggest a diversity of producers over time.

Decorative, polychrome ceramics from Corinth, Greece, produced during the 8th-6th centuries B.C.E. are luxury goods that were widely traded throughout Greece and the Mediterranean. The decorated ceramics were produced in a variety of shapes, including aryballos, alabastron, and olpe. They were decorated with slip-glazes in distinctive white, black, red, yellow, and purple colors, and in a variety of surface finishes, matte, semi-matte and glossy. Artisans in Corinthian workshops experimented to change the colors of the slips by varying the type and amount of iron-rich raw materials. They also varied the composition of the clay used as a binder and the amount of flux used as a sintering aid to promote glass formation. This research reconstructs the technology used by the Corinthian craftsmen to produce the Archaic polychrome ceramics, and shows how these technologies differed from the production of better known, more prestigious Athenian black-figure and red-figure ceramics. Through microstructural examination of archaeological samples and replication experiments, this thesis proposes that the purple iron oxide pigment is the result of acid treatment and oxidation of iron metal. The firing temperature range of the Corinthian polychrome ceramics was determined experimentally to be 925-1025° C, which is higher than previously reported and similar to that reported for Corinthian transport amphoras. The firing range is higher by 50-150° C than the Athenian black-figure and red-figure ceramics. Samples of Corinthian polychrome and Athenian black-figure ceramics from the Marie Farnsworth collection at the University of Arizona were tested and compared to Corinthian clay collections. Analytical techniques included Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning-electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), micro-Raman spectroscopy, and wavelength-dispersive electron microprobe (EPMA with BSE-SEM).

Discovered on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Little Midden site (8BR1933) is an archaeological site on the coast of the Indian River Culture Area. Previous research in this poorly-understood culture area has identified three types of sites: habitation sites, procurement camps, and single episodes sites. Along the Indian River Culture Area's coast, almost all of the archaeological sites have proven to be procurement camps. While the preliminary analysis of the Little Midden site's assemblage suggested that it, like other coastal sites, was a procurement camp, finds such as imported sherds, ochre, and lithics, indicated that it may have been a habitation site. The focus of this thesis is to test the hypothesis that the Little Midden site was a habitation site, as defined by previous researchers. A formal and functional analysis was undertaken on the 154 ceramic rims from the Little Midden site in order to determine the site's function. Models based on archaeological data, ethnohistoric data, and archaeological analogies were created to develop expected characteristics of a ceramic assemblage for each type of site. Tests of diversity, tests that analyze the size of the site's cooking vessels, and an examination that tests the continuity of use at the site were utilized to determine which model the Little Midden site's assemblage best fit. The ceramic results were equivocal. In many ways the Little Midden site's ceramic assemblage met the expectations for a habitation site. However, in other aspects the Little Midden site's ceramic assemblage better fit the expectations developed for a procurement camp. Although this is true, additional data from the site's faunal assemblage suggests that the site was a seasonal procurement camp during the spring and summer months. Combining the ceramic and faunal data, the Little Midden site seems to reflect a large procurement site that was occupied year-after-year to exploit the marine resources, which differs from the inconsistent occupations of other procurement camps. These results demonstrate that previous classifications of site function in the Indian River Culture Area do not describe the full range of human subsistence and settlement behaviors that have been documented archaeologically.

This research addresses group interaction and site use of the Burns Site (8BR85). Burns is a Malabar II (900-1565 AD) period site located within the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) region. The site includes a mound with spoke-like burial patterns, midden deposits, and hearth features. Through ceramic analysis, hierarchical clustering, and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), this thesis explores what activities and social relationships are evident in the ceramic assemblage of the Burns Site. Formal and compositional characteristics of pottery sherds may be indicative of pottery use and movement. Descriptive statistics and correlation found no evidence of standardized local pottery production. Furthermore, the overall form and size of vessels, along with hearth features, suggests that there were no large feasting events. Instead, small meals were prepared and served at the site. To determine chemical composition and provenance, 35 sherds were subjected to INAA. These sherds were clustered into 5 chemical groups, 2 of which were nonlocal to the Indian River Lagoon Region. Nonlocal formal clusters of sherds were estimated, which provide evidence for movement of specific ceramic forms along the Atlantic coast. While there was no evidence of standardized local pottery production, certain vessel forms were being moved to the Burns Site from other regions.

Using archaeological and ethnohistorical data, this dissertation examines the character of the relationship between the Late Postclassic (ca. AD 1250-1520) frontier center of Totogal, located in the western Tuxtla Mountains (Toztlan) of southern Veracruz, Mexico, and the expanding Aztec Empire. Traditional models of imperialism examine frontiers from a core perspective that limits the autonomy and agency of groups in the path of expansion. Recent ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological studies of other boundaries, however, suggest that considerable room for negotiation exists within the space of interactions, whether asymmetrical amounts of power characterize the home bases of those groups. I argue that elites at Totogal, using imperial symbols and markers of their own high status, sponsored feasts and rituals for the non-elite public, during which they brokered the potentially conflicting interests of the Aztecs and the tribute paying population of the Tuxtlas. The invitation of the public to feasts and rituals that combined imperial and local elite symbols (and possibly green obsidian), naturalized the relationship between local elites and imperial representatives with non-elite occupants of Totogal and nearby settlements by establishing a reciprocal system of gifting whereby food and drink, served in the context of elaborate religious and commensal rituals, provided a benefit to the Tuxteco public which, along with other exotic highland goods, was viewed as an acceptable exchange for the local tribute items that the empire desired. This study is an important application of current anthropological perspectives on boundaries, borders, and frontiers to the Aztec Empire. It is also a critical examination of the types of strategies individuals and groups living in boundary regions can enact in situations of contact and change. While studies of modern groups in boundary regions have addressed identity construction and manipulation, and other dynamic social, political, and cultural processes that take place, they do not typically or systematically examine how the negotiations that are enacted in boundary zones are materialized—how changing identities are represented symbolically through the use of particular products or consumption patterns. It is in this area that archaeological perspectives on boundary zone interactions can make important contributions to the modern world.

Studies of European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere have shifted focus from areas of direct European/Native American contact, to investigate Native American groups outside of direct European contact. During Spanish colonization of the Southeastern United States (AD 1520 to AD 1715), the Big Bend region of the Ocmulgee River Valley, in Georgia, located about 160 kilometers from Spanish occupied coast, was inhabited by a Native American polity from the Late Prehistoric into the Mission period. This location is ideal for studying indirect contact. Changes in ceramic production can be used to identify changes in Native American interaction through time. Attributes from ceramics at five sites were recorded, totaling 3,231 sherds. Analysis demonstrates that richness of paste recipes and presence of ceremonial vessels declined, suggesting that regional gatherings declined. Design analysis suggests that interaction with a large variety of Native American groups from outside of the region declined, while interaction with coastal Native American groups in the purview of Spanish colonization increased. This demonstrates that changes to Native American society after European contact were not just the result of interaction with European traditions and technologies, but also the result of changing interaction with Native American groups.

The primary goal of this dissertation is to present an outline of the culture history of the site of La Milpa and its immediate sustaining area through the elaboration and elucidation of a ceramic chronology and typology. However, an equally important aspect of this dissertation is a thorough critique of the type-variety/mode (T-V) system of classification upon which Maya ceramic analysis has been based over the last forty years. The analysis presented here was completed using a relational database (Microsoft Access). By using this database program, it became clear that it is necessary to rethink the basis and use of the type-variety system and how (or whether) it can be adapted as a tool for use in database driven analysis.

This article presents the results of an analysis of ceramics from the site of Huaca Pucllana carried out by Isabel Flores, director of the Huaca Pucllana Archaeological Project. This research is approached from the perspective of chronologicaldiferentiation, arriving at the continuities and changes that occurred in ceramics at the site during its construction and occupation by the Lima society from 530-650 AD. Five pottery types were identified that relate to three constructive phases and a final occupational phase. This paper describes the technological, formal, and decorative aspects of said pottery. / El presente artículo expone los resultados del análisis de la cerámica procedente del sitio Huaca Pucllana, correspondiente a las excavaciones arqueológicas dirigidas por la doctora Isabel Flores. Este análisis se ha abordado desde una perspectiva de diferenciación cronológica, resaltando las continuidades y los cambios ocurridos durante el lapso de construcción y ocupación del asentamiento, por la sociedad Lima, lo cual que abarca el periodo entre los años 530 d.C. y 650 d.C. Estacaracterización se realiza a partir de la diferenciación de cinco alfares, que están relacionados a tres etapas constructivas, y una fase final de ocupación del asentamiento. Se trata de resaltar el aspecto tecnológico, formal y decorativo de dicha cerámica.

This paper is a summary of the methods and key results of my analysis of 7,997 sherds from 14 sites in Beef Basin, Utah. I discuss physical attributes of the collection, the results of mean ceramic dating, the results of neutron activation analysis, and the results of refiring a sample of nips in an oxidizing atmosphere. I briefly summarize the architecture at each site , as well as possible Fremont cultural material found in and near Beef Basin. I conclude that Beef Basin was likely occupied in the early Pueblo III period and that the occupation was sudden and brief. I determined that paste color can be used as a general indicator of clay procurement locale north of the Abajo Mountains, just as it is in the Comb Ridge vicinity (Glowacki et al. 2015), that there was ceramic production in Beef Basin using local materials, and that the people of Beef Basin had similar connections as, or connections with the east of the Comb Ridge area, as evinced by similar sources for light-paste ceramics found in both areas.

This paper is a summary of the methods and key results of my analysis of 7,997 sherds from 14 sites in Beef Basin, Utah. I discuss physical attributes of the collection, the results of mean ceramic dating, the results of neutron activation analysis, and the results of refiring a sample of nips in an oxidizing atmosphere. I briefly summarize the architecture at each site , as well as possible Fremont cultural material found in and near Beef Basin. I conclude that Beef Basin was likely occupied in the early Pueblo III period and that the occupation was sudden and brief. I determined that paste color can be used as a general indicator of clay procurement locale north of the Abajo Mountains, just as it is in the Comb Ridge vicinity (Glowacki et al. 2015), that there was ceramic production in Beef Basin using local materials, and that the people of Beef Basin had similar connections as, or connections with the east of the Comb Ridge area, as evinced by similar sources for light-paste ceramics found in both areas.