Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Role of Standardization in Specialization of Ceramic Production at San Marcos Pueblo, New Mexico

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Under the supervision of Dr. Patricia Crown, Kari Schleher will conduct her doctoral research on the pottery from the Ancestral Puebloan site of San Marcos Pueblo. San Marcos is located in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico and was occupied from the 13th century until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Among the largest of prehispanic pueblos, San Marcos is unique in its role as a production center of glaze-painted pottery. Pots were made with local materials and exported to other villages throughout the region. Schleher's research will use the ceramics from San Marcos to test an assumption used by archaeologists to reconstruct the level of economic specialization of past societies. This assumption is that the more standardized (uniform) the pots are, the higher the degree of economic specialization. This assumption is problematic because the relationship between standardization and specialized production is not clear. Anthropologists studying modern groups have found that specialists' products are not always standardized. Ms. Schleher will test this assumption by examining how standardization occurs and for what attributes standardization occurs on pottery from San Marcos. This archaeological site is ideal for examining the proposed question because production of glaze-painted pottery intensified from approximately AD 1400 to 1550. Intensity of production, the number of goods produced in a given unit of time, varies with the amount of time potters spend making pots. The evidence for specialization by potters at San Marcos is large quantities of glaze-painted pottery made with local materials found at contemporary villages located throughout the Northern Rio Grande. Increase in frequency of pottery from San Marcos at other villages indicates an increased intensity of production. Thus, the site is an ideal situation to examine how standardization varies with increasing and decreasing intensity of specialized production. Ms. Schleher will examine standardization of vessel form, technology, and decoration of pottery from San Marcos. She will also examine a comparative collection of pottery exported from San Marcos to determine if exported ceramics are more or less standardized than those remaining at the Pueblo. She will use petrographic, microprobe analysis, and non-destructive analyzes to collect data on standardization and changes in standardization through time. The intellectual merit of this research is that it will contribute to an understanding of how specialized production intensity is visible in the archaeological record. It will contribute to the development of theoretical models of specialized craft production and will help archaeologists interpret the degree of economic complexity in past societies. The broader impacts of the study are numerous. In addition to these benefits to other anthropologists, conducting this research will provide the author with professional training. Within the American Southwest, this research is of interest to modern Puebloan potters. The ceramic technology and the materials used to make pots at San Marcos are of interest to potters at Cochiti Pueblo, the likely descendents of the ancient residents of San Marcos. In addition, the Archaeological Conservancy, who owns the Pueblo, will include this research in interpretations of the site for the public.