Production and Distribution of Polychrome Ceramics in the Casas Grandes Region, Chihuahua, Mexico

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Daniela Triadan will analyze a series of late prehistoric ceramics derived from the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua, Mexico. In the centuries just prior to European contact, a complex society, centered on the site of Paquime developed in Casas Grandes and its influence extended northwards into the Southwestern USA. The presence of carefully crafted exotic materials including copper objects indicate widespread trade networks and suggest a mercantile society with broad extra-regional contacts. Archaeologists have noted similarities between Casas Grandes artifacts and counterparts in Central Mexico and it has been argued that the site represents a trading outpost which reveals a direct southern presence in the region. It has also been argued that late prehistoric cultural development is the Southwest is not indigenous but rather owes its presence to an outside impetus. For scientists who wish to understand how complex societies develop and interact this question is significant. Dr. Triadan's research focuses on the organization of Casas Grandes itself and attempts to reconstruct trade patterns in the region. She will focus on Paquime which is clearly the largest and most complex site and set it into a broader regional pattern through comparison with the numerous smaller sites in the Casas Grandes area. Because economic, social and political systems are closely linked, her analysis of ceramic production and distribution patterns will provide insight into broader features of social organization. She wishes to understand how tightly the production and distribution of ceramics were centralized and controlled by Paquime elites. The greater the degree of centralization the greater the probability that Casas Grandes developed and is best understood in local indigenous terms rather than as a foreign trading outpost. To accomplish this goal Dr Triadan will map clay deposit distribution in the Casas Grandes area and chemically characterize individual occurrences. She will also conduct compositional analysis of a large series of shreds, undertake a stylistic design analysis of complete vessels and subject these also to compositional analysis. Limited petrography characterization will also take place and data will be obtained from traditional potters still active in the region. Because clay deposits are likely to differ in trace element composition, it should be possible to link individual objects to raw material source and thus reconstruct movement across the system. The results of this research will be of interest to regional archaeologists as well as social scientists interested in the mechanisms which underlie the growth of complex societies.