Pottery and Trade

This chapter focuses on the economic activity surrounding Phoenician ceramic production and distribution, in contrast with the traditional focus on ceramic typologies or other formal or chronological aspects. Given the limited data available, however, it is difficult to analyze the complex issues surrounding production to their full extent. Therefore, this chapter does not offer definitive answers. Instead, the chapter identifies diverse factors that play an important role in Phoenician pottery production, such as demand, planning, production, and distribution, as well as the respective dynamic behavior, incidence, and consequences accompanying each process, thus offering here an approach to Phoenician ceramics that breaks away from the rigidity of current models.

Polychrome Pottery Economics and Ritual Life in Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico

Tututepec was a regional capital that dominated much of southern Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1100-1522). This article synthesizes the results of compositional (neutron activation and petrography), stylistic, and iconographic analyses of pottery from commoner household excavations at Tututepec to address questions concerning ceramic production and distribution and also to shed light on aspects of political economy and domestic ritual at the capital. The study focuses primarily on Mixteca-Puebla polychromes, painted serving vessels bearing complex decorative motifs. Our compositional analyses, interpreted in light of the bedrock geology of the region, indicate that commoners obtained at least six to ten distinct varieties of pottery made from raw materials available locally within greater Tututepec. We argue that households probably acquired pottery through a central marketplace at the capital. In addition, our study demonstrates that commoners had regular access to polychromes from multiple producers, challenging the widespread notion that these vessels were restricted to elites who controlled their production. We argue that polychrome serving vessels played a prominent role in commonly occurring domestic rituals. Furthermore, commoners appear to have consciously selected vessels painted with imagery associated with warfare and sacrifice, suggesting that they actively supported the official imperial ideology of Tututepec.

Ceramic Petrographic Analysis of Sites 41CP71, 41BW2, 41BW5, and 41SM442, Northeast Texas

A total of 61 ancestral Caddo ceramic sherds from four village sites in Northeast Texas were studied by ceramic petrographic methods in 2014. The sample sherds were excavated from their sites under controlled conditions and were either archived at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (41BW2), Stephen F. Austin State University (41CP71), or remain in private hands (41SM442). Recently, they were selected for combined petrographic and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), although only the sherds from the Alligator Pond site (41SM442) have actually been submitted and analyzed by INAA at this time. This combination of approaches is part of a change in Northeast Texas ceramic technological studies termed a second generation by some (Robinson 2014), although such multiple combined approaches have long been advocated and applied in general archaeological literature. The approach looks at the geochemical and petrological characteristics of ceramics in tandem to gain a broader and more informative background on the character of ancient pottery. This study is the petrographic branch of the overall approach; the objective here is to gain clues or suggestions on local, community, and regional scales of Caddo ceramic production and distribution. Part of this effort is to attempt to identify localities and types of clay beds used in ceramic manufacture.