TY - JOUR
T1 - It's What's inside that Counts
T2 - Developing a paste group typology in Belize
AU - Jordan, Jillian M.
AU - Peuramaki-Brown, Meaghan M.
AU - Chiac, Sylvestro
AU - Saqui, Aurora
AU - Tzib, Frank
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant numbers 430-2015-00193 , 435-2018-0091 ], and both the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Research Centre at Athabasca University. We thank the Belize Institute of Archaeology and Dr. John Morris for our permits to conduct archaeological investigations at Alabama and to export pottery, and the property owners for allowing us access to the private land on which Alabama is situated. None of this research could have been accomplished without our SCRAP team, including local and foreign assistants, students, and research collaborators, as well as the community and leadership of Maya Mopan, Belize. Thank you to Dr. Laura Kosakowsky for providing SCRAP with the Index of Mesoamerican Archaeological Nomenclature to name the newly established paste groups at Alabama, and who offered advice and answered our many questions concerning the organization of our typology. Thank you to Dr. Lauren Sullivan for reading a draft of this manuscript and providing comments. Thank you also to Drs. Elizabeth Graham and Prudence Rice for their thoughtful reviews of our manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the early assistance of Drs. Linda Howie and Joanna Potter who provided preliminary (contracted) petrographic services and advice with developing the assemblage approach.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant numbers 430-2015-00193, 435-2018-0091], and both the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Research Centre at Athabasca University. We thank the Belize Institute of Archaeology and Dr. John Morris for our permits to conduct archaeological investigations at Alabama and to export pottery, and the property owners for allowing us access to the private land on which Alabama is situated. None of this research could have been accomplished without our SCRAP team, including local and foreign assistants, students, and research collaborators, as well as the community and leadership of Maya Mopan, Belize. Thank you to Dr. Laura Kosakowsky for providing SCRAP with the Index of Mesoamerican Archaeological Nomenclature to name the newly established paste groups at Alabama, and who offered advice and answered our many questions concerning the organization of our typology. Thank you to Dr. Lauren Sullivan for reading a draft of this manuscript and providing comments. Thank you also to Drs. Elizabeth Graham and Prudence Rice for their thoughtful reviews of our manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge the early assistance of Drs. Linda Howie and Joanna Potter who provided preliminary (contracted) petrographic services and advice with developing the assemblage approach. Data Availability Statement. The data for this paper can be found on our website (scraparchaeology.com) and the full petrographic descriptions are also included as Supplemental Online Material.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - The ceramic assemblage at the Classic Period Maya site of Alabama, Belize is poorly preserved and fragmentary. Most of the pottery cannot be classified using standard type-variety approaches, which privilege decoration and surface treatment. The nature of the Alabama ceramic assemblage requires a classification system organized by paste wares, as opposed to incorporating paste composition as a modal or analytical unit that crosscuts types and wares, as this is the only attribute that can be reliably evaluated across all contexts. We identified and systematically described paste groups as a first step toward a typology organized by ceramic paste wares. We analysed 100% of ceramics from settlement surface collection at the site, including non-diagnostic samples, using a scaffolded approach that integrates macroscopic observations, Dino-Lite USB microscopy, and thin section petrography. This approach facilitates the analysis of pottery from all contexts, regardless of the degree of preservation. Incorporating paste composition into classification schemes provides important data on pottery production traditions and the people responsible for their production, which cannot be determined from stylistic analyses alone. We established five new paste groups indicative of local and non-local pottery production. Our approach to ceramic classification provides a method that can be applied to any archaeological site, regardless of the prevailing classification system in place, and is especially relevant to sites with poorly preserved ceramic assemblages dominated by non-diagnostic sherds.
AB - The ceramic assemblage at the Classic Period Maya site of Alabama, Belize is poorly preserved and fragmentary. Most of the pottery cannot be classified using standard type-variety approaches, which privilege decoration and surface treatment. The nature of the Alabama ceramic assemblage requires a classification system organized by paste wares, as opposed to incorporating paste composition as a modal or analytical unit that crosscuts types and wares, as this is the only attribute that can be reliably evaluated across all contexts. We identified and systematically described paste groups as a first step toward a typology organized by ceramic paste wares. We analysed 100% of ceramics from settlement surface collection at the site, including non-diagnostic samples, using a scaffolded approach that integrates macroscopic observations, Dino-Lite USB microscopy, and thin section petrography. This approach facilitates the analysis of pottery from all contexts, regardless of the degree of preservation. Incorporating paste composition into classification schemes provides important data on pottery production traditions and the people responsible for their production, which cannot be determined from stylistic analyses alone. We established five new paste groups indicative of local and non-local pottery production. Our approach to ceramic classification provides a method that can be applied to any archaeological site, regardless of the prevailing classification system in place, and is especially relevant to sites with poorly preserved ceramic assemblages dominated by non-diagnostic sherds.
KW - Ceramic Typology
KW - Classification
KW - Maya
KW - Paste Wares
KW - Pottery
KW - Thin Section Petrography
KW - Type-Variety
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104907632&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103019
DO - 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103019
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104907632
SN - 2352-409X
VL - 37
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
M1 - 103019
ER -