Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Data For The Distribution Of Flat-Backed Canteens, Kristina L. Whitney

Anthropology Graduate Student Publications

Since water transport vessels are often a highly conservative vessel form, the appearance of a new water vessel shape—the flat-backed canteen—in the American Southwest around the time of Spanish arrival raises questions concerning its introduction. These data are the basis of a study aimed at documenting the presence of the flat-backed canteen in the American Southwest from the sixteenth through twentieth centuries and explores changes in their distribution and use through time. A total of 128 flat-backed canteens were analyzed from archaeological and ethnographic collections, while 97 additional New World canteens were documented through an extensive literature review. Its contemporary …

Asymmetry Of Caddo Ceramics From The Washington Square Mound Site: An Exploratory Analysis, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

While pursuing a study of 3D geometric morphometrics for ceramic burial vessels that often articulate with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) from the ancestral Caddo region, there have been no shortage of potentially meaningful observations, one of which--rotational asymmetry in coil-built vessels--is discussed here. Using Geomagic Design X (reverse-engineering software) and Geomagic Control X (inspection software), metrics associated with rotational asymmetry were generated then analyzed. Results indicate variable asymmetry among the different vessel shapes (i.e., bottles, jars, etc.), which may augment and strengthen studies and discussion of vessel form. Future directions include the incorporation of directional …

To Temper Or Not To Temper: A Petrographic Textural Study Of Clays And Formative Ceramic Sherds From The Valley Of Oaxaca, Mexico, Cheri Lynn Price

Theses and Dissertations

Ceramics are one of the best forms of material culture archaeologists can use to analyze questions of social, political, economic, and ideological complexity. The purpose of this thesis research is to determine if the clays used to manufacture later Middle Formative-Terminal Formative ceramics in the Valley of Oaxaca were tempered or otherwise modified by looking at texture of sherds petrographically. Clay samples from around the valley, modern sherds, and Formative sherds were examined and compared using six different forms of analysis. The results show that it is most probable that the Formative sherds were not tempered. However, several sherds exhibited …

Ceramic Consumption In A Boston Immigrant Tenement, Andrew J. Webster

Graduate Masters Theses

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Boston’s North End became home to thousands of European immigrants, mostly from Ireland and Italy. The majority of these immigrant families lived in crowded tenement apartments and earned their wages from low-paying jobs such as manual laborers or store clerks. The Ebenezer Clough House at 21 Unity Street was originally built as a single-family colonial home in the early eighteenth century but was later repurposed as a tenement in the nineteenth century. In 2013, the City of Boston Archaeology Program excavated the rear lot of the Clough House, recovering 36,465 artifacts, including …

New Perspectives On The Seventeenth-Century Protohistoric Period In East Tennessee: Redefining The Period Through Glass Trade Bead And Ceramic Analyses, Jessica Nicole Dalton-Carriger

Doctoral Dissertations

The Protohistoric period in East Tennessee is poorly understood in the archaeological record and is defined as the intermediate period between the Late Mississippian and Historic periods in the seventeenth century. Earlier research focused on depopulation, population replacement, and the rise of Overhill Cherokee settlements in the eighteenth century, with little attention to the transitional Protohistoric period. The goal of this dissertation is to examine new fields of evidence and employ new dating methods in order to fully understand the Protohistoric period in East Tennessee

This dissertation does this in three ways. It explores three hypotheses concerning the habitation of …

The Proof Is In The Pots: Residue Analysis Of Virgin Branch Puebloan Ceramics, Brenna Lynn Wilkerson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on better understanding diet and subsistence strategies among Virgin Branch Puebloan groups living in the Moapa Valley in southern Nevada and on the Shivwits Plateau in northwestern Arizona. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify absorbed food residues in three types of Virgin Branch Puebloan ceramics (Moapa Gray Ware, Shivwits Ware, and Tusayan Virgin Series). The data produced by the residue analysis were used to compare patterns of subsistence between Virgin Branch Puebloan sites in the lowlands along the Muddy River and at upland sites on the Shivwits Plateau as these two areas have different environments …

Consumerism And Ceramics At The Stephen Field Farmstead, Walworth County, Wisconsin, Kathleen Elizabeth Bindley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the expression of consumer behavior and choice through ceramic archaeological remains from the Stephen Field Farmstead (47WL351) site, a nineteenth-century farmstead located in East Troy Township, Walworth County, Wisconsin, with emphasis placed on the ceramics recovered from Feature One, a stone-lined privy vault. Ceramics were collected in 2010, 2011, and 2013, during field investigations conducted by the Wisconsin Historical Society-Museum Archaeology Program. The collection is permanently housed at the East Troy Area Historical Society, but is currently on loan to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. An inventory of the ceramic vessels from Feature One at the Stephen Field …

The Cambria Connection: Identifying Ceramic Production And Community Interaction In Late Prehistoric Minnesota, Ad 1050-1300, Katy Jean Mollerud

Theses and Dissertations

The Cambria phase (AD 1050-1300) is an archaeological complex primarily centered on the elevated terraces of the Minnesota River in south-central Minnesota. Cambria phase pottery demonstrates technical and stylistic influences from several different late prehistoric cultures, and although the Cambria phase is currently classified as part of the Initial Middle Missouri Variant, certain affinities are evident between the grit-tempered, rolled rim ceramics at Cambria and the Powell-Ramey series at Cahokia. Although this pottery is a minority ware at Cambria, it is ubiquitous in the site literature, where it is interpreted as evidence for interaction with the Mississippian world. However, the …

Ceramic Diversity And Its Relation To Access To Market For Slaves On A Plantation, Rebecca L. Aucoin

Honors Theses

A study of the diversity of ceramics found on a plantation at a slave house in relation to the access to market that slave had could lead to a better understanding of the life and culture of slaves. A high diversity of ceramics at sites might indicate slaves purchased their own ceramics. At a number of sites located in the Natchez District in Mississippi, a study was conducted to identify samples of ceramic sherds to determine if slaves were able to purchase their own dish ware. The results of the study indicated that slaves at Mount Locust Plantation likely had …

A Reflection Of Maya Representation, Distribution, And Interaction: Ceramic Figurines From The Late Classic Site Of Cancuén, Petén Department, Guatemala, Erin L. Sears

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This project explores intersecting spheres of technological, stylistic and contextually patterned relationships expressed by ceramic figurines associated with the major Maya polity Cancuén. Cancuén is situated by assessing its external contacts by reference to figurines recovered from several Late Classic settlements, and hieroglyphic texts recorded as interacting polities. By focusing on these sites along connecting waterways, I attempt to discern directions of influence and change with regard to figurine use patterns relative to those seen in other ceramic representations. Traditional archaeological criteria were used to obtain excavated figurines at specific sites. Stylistic and technological information are augmented through an intensive …

Forgotten Sherds: Analysis Of Archaeological Ceramics From The Riverside Site (20me01), Michigan, Devyn Mcilraith

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an analysis of the ceramic sherds recovered from the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and the Oshkosh Public Museum’s (OPM) 1961-1963 excavations at the Riverside site (20ME01) in Menominee, Michigan. The Riverside site is most well known as a Late Archaic/ Early Woodland Old Copper/Red Ocher burial site. This analysis focuses on using the ceramic assemblage to refine the Riverside site’s cultural chronology and relationship to the Riverside II site (20ME40). More than 1,300 sherds were collected from the site between 1961 and 1963 and they have been permanently housed at the MPM for the past 60 years. …

Radiant Heat Effects On Ceramic Artifacts From The American Southwest: From Experimental Results To Site Treatment Guidelines, Rebekah R. Kneifel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archaeological assemblages in the American Southwest are currently subjected to periodic wildfires and prescribed burns, and have been exposed to fires in the past. Ceramics are a key constituent of these assemblages, leading to questions regarding the effects of post-depositional heat exposure on pottery. Alterations of ceramic surface appearance and other attributes have been observed following wildfires, and such changes are significant because intact ceramics provide important temporal context and social information. Over the past 150 years, southwestern wildfires have shifted away from the historical high-frequency, low-severity regime; thus, cultural resources can be exposed to fires that are potentially more …

Corrugated Ware Function And Use As Identity Markers At The Harris Site, Danielle Romero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the function of corrugated vessels and addresses pithouse and group identity through the differences in technological and design style at the Harris site (LA 1867), a Late Pithouse period (550-1000 CE) Mimbres Mogollon pithouse village. Corrugated wares have long been defined as utilitarian cooking vessels. The goal of this research is to shed more light on corrugated wares as a ceramic type that served a variety of functions outside of cooking, including a presence in ritual spheres. This research also explores the use of technological and design styles of corrugated wares to discuss individual and group identity. …

Etruscan Trade Networks: Understanding The Significance Of Imported Materials At Remote Etruscan Settlements Through Trace Element Analysis Using Non-Destructive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, Patrick T. Woodruff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Etruscan civilization was rich in local and interregional trade. Its exchange networks were vital in establishing relationships with other societies, importing exotic materials and goods, as well as disseminating and assimilating information. However, there is little understanding of the participation of smaller inland settlements in the act of exchange. This research answers questions pertaining to the purpose of trade within these self-sustaining communities, the reliability of identifying geographic locations of the clay used in ancient ceramics through the use of non-destructive X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry without sampling current regional clay sources, and the materiality of the ceramics being exchanged …

Understanding Use And Function: An Intrasite Comparative Analysis Of The 2011 Uwm Aztalan Ceramic Assemblage, Jill Marie Kotwasinski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an analysis of a subset of the ceramics recovered during the 2011 UWM Aztalan excavations. The analysis was designed to determine if there is a difference between ceramic assemblages recovered from different site depositional contexts presumably reflective of different behaviors, such as refuse disposal, domestic activities, or ritual activity. This analysis consists of a comparison of ceramics from the 2011 UWM Collection, in addition to the three main recovery contexts of the Northeast Mound: the Northeast Mound Top, Sub Mound, and Fill at Aztalan (Zych 2013) and vessels from the 2013 UWM collection. Utilizing only the rim …

Investigating Sociopolitical Complexity Through The Presentation Of Food: An Analysis Of Middle To Late Formative Ceramics From Amalucan, Puebla, Mexico, Allyse Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the relationship between sociopolitical complexity and ceramics from the site of Amalucan, Puebla, Mexico, with an emphasis on trends during the Middle to Late Formative (800 B.C.-A.D. 200). Ceramics were collected during field investigations in the 1960s by Dr. Melvin Fowler and are currently housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. An inventory of the various provisional types of ceramics at Amalucan was compiled, including variability in vessel forms and stratigraphic contexts. This was paramount since it helped situate Amalucan within the larger Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley. Various analyses were conducted, including an evaluation of evidence of food presentation (feasting), …

Note On "The Ceramics From The Weeksville Excavations", Bert Salwen, Sarah Bridges

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

The Ceramics From The Weeksville Excavations, Brooklyn, New York, Bert Salwen, Sarah Bridges

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

The Yorktown Pottery Industry, Yorktown, Virginia, Norman F. Barka, Chris Sheridan

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

Occupational Differences Reflected In Material Culture, Kathleen Joan Bragdon

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

Filling In Round Pond: Refuse Disposal In Post-Revolutionary Boston, Mary Beaudry, Tamara Blosser

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract is available at this time.

Ceramics And Socio-Economic Statues Of The Green Family, Windsor, Vermont, Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood, Scott D. Heberling

Northeast Historical Archaeology

No abstract available at this time.

Ceramics And The Sea Trade In Portsmouth, New Hampshire: 1765-1785, Aileen Button Agnew

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a small seaport with a long history of maritime trade. The Deer Street archaeological projects in Portsmouth have provided extensive information on different stages of the city's past. The excavation of a small cellar, filled ca. 1785, yielded a wealth of artifacts dating to the period 1765-1785. More than 5000 ceramic artifacts were recovered, providing the basis for an examination of the connection between the sea trade and the personal possessions of the inhabitants.

Squeezing Ceramics For More Than Their Worth: Boundary Maintenance At An 18th-Century Port In New Jersey, Rebecca Yamin

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Archaeological excavations and associated documentary studies at Raritan Landing, an 18th/19th-century port site on the Raitan River in Piscataway, New Jersey, suggested that the relationship between this small community of traders and New York City merchants changed during the years preceding the Revolutionary War. Diminshing kinship, commercial, and institutional ties between the Raritan Landing traders and New York investors appeared to reflect increasing independence from New York domination over time. When the ceramics recovered from pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary-period deposits were compared to deposits from several sites in Manhattan and another site within New York, a pattern emerged that has been …

Linking Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (Inaa) With Geology In The Ancestral Caddo Region, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

This poster illustrates the success of a novel method of INAA that was employed to reveal geochemical signatures in Caddo ceramic vessel sherds that correlate with local surficial geology. The geochemical data from the sherd assemblage were used within an exploration of potential ceramic provenance, which was successful at demarcating sherds from ceramic vessels made from clays in either the Claiborne or Wilcox Groups. Further geochemical segregation was also apparent between the Recklaw Formation in the Claiborne Group, and the Weches Formation in the Wilcox Group. These results point to a high degree of geochemical variability within the East Texas …

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (Inaa) Of Shell-Tempered Ceramics In The Ancestral Caddo Region: Rethinking Methods, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

The geochemical analysis of shell-tempered ceramics in the ancestral Caddo region has been a matter of confusion since the mid-1990s. While Caddo archaeologists have long perceived most or all of the shell-tempered ceramics in East Texas to have originated from two different areas within the Red River basin, the geochemical data and interpretations remain inconsistent with that idea. This poster takes another look at this dataset, and considers an approach that was initially put forth by MURR, and then seemingly abandoned. Using only the geochemical data from shell-tempered sherds, we take a closer look at the contributions of calcium (Ca), …

Toward A Morphometric Phylogeny Of Caddo Ceramics: A Test Of 3d Geometric Morphometrics, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula, Michael J. O'Brien

CRHR: Archaeology

In this poster we use 3D geometric morphometrics as an exploratory tool for examining diversity in vessel form (or shape) among 27 whole or reconstructed Caddo vessels from the Vanderpool site in Smith County, Texas. Forty-one landmarks from each vessel were exported to version 2.5 of Morphologika for generalized Procrustes analysis and principal components analysis and were then exported to R for cluster analysis (depending on sample size). Despite the small sample size, results indicate that 3D geometric morphometric analysis is an avenue of ceramic research where substantive analytical gains can be realized.

At The Confluence Of Gis And Geochemistry: Identifying Geochemical Correlates Of Ripley Engraved Caddo Ceramics, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

In this poster, we discuss a new approach to the identification and definition of spatial trends in archeologically-recovered ceramics associated with geochemical results produced using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Using all of the Ripley Engraved INAA samples, we posit that clays in the Claiborne and Wilcox Groups can be successfully demarcated by sodium (Na), cerium (Ce), and zinc (Zn). Using a subset of those data from the Big Cypress Creek basin, we find that ceramics manufactured in three different Caddo political communities can be successfully demarcated based upon differential concentrations of arsenic (As), iron (Fe), and vanadium (V) found …

Advances In Documentation, Digital Curation, Virtual Exhibition, And A Test Of 3d Geometric Morhpometrics: A Case Study Of The Vanderpool Vessels From The Ancestral Caddo Territory, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula, Michael J. O'Brien

CRHR: Archaeology

Three-dimensional (3D) digital scanning of archaeological materials is typically used as a tool for artifact documentation. With the permission of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, 3D documentation of Caddo funerary vessels from the Vanderpool site (41SM77) was conducted with the initial goal of ensuring that these data would be publicly available for future research long after the vessels were repatriated. A digital infrastructure was created to archive and disseminate the resultant 3D datasets, ensuring that they would be accessible by both researchers and the general public (CRHR 2014a). However, 3D imagery can be used for much more than documentation. To …

Book Review: Ceramic Makers' Marks By Erica S. Gibson, Patricia Samford

Northeast Historical Archaeology

Ceramic Makers' Marks, by Erica S. Gibson, 2010, Guides to Historical Artifacts, Left Coast Press, 147 pages, 253 black-and-white illustrations, indexes, $89.00 (cloth), $24.95 (paper).