Electron Microprobe and Petrographic Analyses of Prehistoric Hohokam Pottery to Determine Ceramic Exchange Within the Sa
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ELECTRON MICROPROBE AND PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSES OF PREHISTORIC HOHOKAM POTTERY TO DETER.MINE CERAMIC EXCHANGE WITHIN THE SALT RIVER VALLTY, ARIZONA DAVID R. ABBOTT AND DAVID M. SCHALLER Soil Systems, Inc., 1121 N. 2nd St., Phoenix, AZ,
85004
ABSTRACT Ceramic analysis with an electron microprobe and thin-section petrography are used to investigate prehistoric exchange among the Hohokam of the Salt River valley, Arizona. These complimentary techniques can be useful for resolving the special problems that arise when studying ceramic exchange over short distances. INTRODUCTION Many exchange studies of ceramics have had success in identifying pottery from distant sources, but less success in recognizing imports from closer vicinities. The ceramics traded from a long distance away may frequently be recognized on the basis of conspicuous attributes such as decorative style or technology. Widely separated potters tend to have different cultural backgrounds that influence their craft, and the raw materials available to them are likely to be obviously different. At the shorter distances, however, establishing a correspondence between production loci and particular characteristics of the pottery is difficult; not only are pots from different sources less likely to be obviously different, but interpreting their more subtle differences is complicated at this restricted scale. In this case study of exchange among the prehistoric Hohokam, subtle differences in raw material have been characterized and carefully evaluated to confidently distinguish locally produced pottery from ceramics that were made a short distance away. ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND The Hohokam of south-central Arizona flourished for a millennium in the arid environment of the Sonoran desert. They were primarily irrigation agriculturalists who engineered some of the most extensive canal systems in the New World. One concentration of Hohokam settlement was within the Salt River valley; the area now occupied by metropolitan Phoenix. At least four canal systems were in operation there, each of which included a set of main channels whose headgates were clustered at a few locations (Figure 1). Within each canal system villages and farmsteads were spread along the canal routes. Their inhabitants were, at a minimum, dependent on one another for water delivery and ditch maintenance. A comparison of the social and economic cooperation within and between canal systems is a topic of current research. It not only pertains to how the Hohokam organized themselves, but to the effects of the mutual dependencies engendered in irrigation communities in general [1]. Accordingly, ceramic exchange within the Salt River valley is a major concern. Research by Soil Systems, Inc., is currently underway at Pueblo Grande. Pueblo Grande, situated at the headgates of Canal System 2, was perhaps the largest and most influential Hohokam settlement in the Salt River valley. One means of assessing its role in the regional system is by documenting from where, how much, and what forms of ceramic con
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