The list of pottery types and descriptions which follows is a partial compilation of the prehistoric and protohistoric aboriginal ceramics found on the Tonto National Forest in central Arizona. It is an attempt to provide a description of an important aspect of Tonto archaeology which lies somewhere between a "popular" or non-technical account and an abstract and specialized technical manual. It presents a typology of Tonto pottery based on its manufacturing technology and physical attributes, but it does not constitute a study of typology or ceramic technology. It presents a number of pottery type descriptions, but it cannot be considered an identification in the traditional sense. Nor is it a bibliography of ceramic literary references for the Forest, despite the inclusion of a list of useful references. It is intended primarily as an introduction to the study of central Arizona pottery and as a tool for making "quick and dirty" type identifications, especially in the field.
This monograph takes a fresh look at migration in light of the recent resurgence of interest in this topic within archaeology. The author develops a reliable approach for detecting and assessing the impact of migration based on conceptions of style in anthropology. From numerous ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistoric case studies, material culture attributes are isolated that tend to be associated only with the groups that produce them. Clark uses this approach to evaluate Puebloan migration into the Tonto Basin of east-central Arizona during the early Classic period (A.D. 1200-1325), focusing on a community that had been developing with substantial Hohokam influence prior to this interval. He identifies Puebloan enclaves in the indigenous settlements based on culturally specific differences in the organization of domestic space and in technological styles reflected in wall construction and utilitarian ceramic manufacture. Puebloan migration was initially limited in scale, resulting in the co-residence of migrants and local groups within a single community. Once this co-residence settlement pattern is reconstructed, relations between the two groups are examined and the short-term and long-term impacts of migration are assessed. The early Classic period is associated with the appearance of the Salado horizon in the Tonto Basin. The results of this research suggest that migration and co-residence was common throughout the basins and valleys in the region defined by the Salado horizon, although each local sequence relates a unique story. The methodological and theoretical implications of Clark's work extend well beyond the Salado and the Southwest and apply to any situation in which the scale and impact of prehistoric migration are contested.
This CD-ROM and book present the research at a large, dispersed residential settlement located along the Santa Cruz River occupied during the Rincon phase of the Sedentary period between about A.D. 950 and 1100. One of the most intensively excavated settlements in the Tucson Basin, excavations at the SRI locus provided an opportunity to return to a previously excavated site and contribute new evidence for earlier findings. West Branch has been identified as a community of potters who fabricated arange of painted, plain, and red ware ceramics. The research focused on this notion, exploring how pots were made, the ways in which potters carried out their craft, and models for the production and distribution of ceramic containers. Volume 1, Feature Descriptions, Material Culture, and Specialized Analyses, is provided in CD-ROM format and includes details of fieldwork such as feature descriptions and the descriptive artifactual and subsistence-data reports. Volume 2, Synthesis and Interpretations, presented in book format, offers the results of synthetic and interpretive analyses.
When this book first appeared in 1996, it was “Pottery 101,” a basic introduction to the subject. It served as an art book, a history book, and a reference book, but also fun to read, beautiful to look at, and filled with good humor and good sense. After twenty years of faithful service, it’s been expanded and brought up-to-date with photographs of more than 1,600 pots from more than 1,600 years. It shows every pottery-producing group in the Southwest, complete with maps that show where each group lives. Now updated, rewritten, and re-photographed, it's a comprehensive study as well as a basic introduction to the art.
Beginning sometime in the thirteenth century, people from the Hopi Mesas established a cluster of villages to the south along the Little Colorado River. They were attracted by the river’s resources and the region’s ideal conditions for growing cotton. By the late 1300s, these Homol’ovi villages were the center of a robust trade in cotton among many clusters of villages near or on the southern Colorado Plateau and were involved in the beginning of the katsina religion among Hopi people. Charles Adams has directed fifteen years of research at these sites for the Arizona State Museum, including excavations in five of the seven primary Homol'ovi villages and in other villages predating them. Through this research he concludes that the founders of these settlements were Hopis who sought to protect their territory from migrating groups elsewhere in the Pueblo world. This book summarizes that research and broadens our understanding of the relationship of Homol'ovi to ancient and modern Hopi people. Each Homol'ovi village had a unique history of establishment, growth, sociopolitical organization, length of occupation, and abandonment; and although the villages shared much in the way of material culture, their size and configuration were tremendously varied. By comparing Homol'ovi research to information from projects on other settlements in the area, Adams has been able to reconstruct a provocative history of the Homol'ovi cluster that includes relationships among the individual villages and their relationships to nearby clusters. He shows that social organization within villages is apparent by the number and variety of ritual structures, while political organization among villages is indicated by the need for cooperation to share water for irrigation and by the exchange of such materials as pottery, obsidian, and ground stone. Adams advances several important theories about why Homol'ovi was founded where and when it was, who its founders were, and the importance of cotton in making Homol'ovi an important center of trade in the 1300s. He also considers why Pueblo settlements suddenly became so large, addressing theoretical issues pertaining to multiple settlements and the rise of enormous villages containing more than 1,000 rooms. Homol'ovi is a rich work of synthesis and interpretation that will be important for anyone with an interest in Southwest archaeology, Arizona history, or Hopi culture. By considering the settlement trajectory of an entire cluster of sites, it will also prove valuable to archaeologists worldwide.
