Archaeologists have long interpreted Arizona and Sonora’s Upper Santa Cruz valley as a precolonial “contact zone” or “frontier” between the Trincheras and Hohokam traditions. These models are heavily influenced by the contemporary US-Mexico border and outdated core/periphery models. Furthermore, although plain ware represents most pottery from this region, it has never been used to understand the populations who inhabited the region or to reconstruct local communities of practice. This article provides the first systematic study of plain ware from 23 sites across the Upper Santa Cruz. We incorporate Bhabha’s (2004) “Third Space” theory to suggest that local potter communities actively responded to changing interactions with neighboring populations for more than five centuries. By focusing our attention on local ceramic production, and critically evaluating cultural boundaries, we reposition the Upper Santa Cruz as neither a periphery nor frontier but an area rich in its own dynamic cultural expressions and regional agency.

A la caída de Teotihuacan, la ciudad no queda en total abandono; grupos culturales continuaron viviendo sobre las ruinas, reutilizando espacios y áreas a las que quizás, en algún momento, no les era permitido acceder. Hacia 600-650 dC comienza a prevalecer un nuevo complejo cerámico Coyotlatelco integrado por formas, diseños y estilos, y caracterizado por la decoración rojo sobre café. En el 800-850 dC el complejo cerámico Mazapa se encuentra en el área; sus formas y estilos (la decoración con líneas ondulantes y la olla blanco levantado cuyo origen se remonta a la región del Bajío) la hacen diferente. De 1390 dC a 1520 dC, el Complejo cerámico Azteca II, III tardío, IV y contacto está presente en Teotihuacan. Toda esta intensa actividad que se dio sobre la antigua urbe se ve reflejada en los túneles que se encuentran al este de la Pirámide del Sol. De 1987 a 1996, Linda R. Manzanilla lleva a cabo un proyecto interdisciplinario donde excava extensivamente cuatro túneles, y registra diferentes actividades al interior de ellos. Con el análisis detallado de la cerámica se pudieron identificar, ubicar cronológicamente y conformar los complejos cerámicos Coyotlatelco, Mazapa y Azteca en Teotihuacan.

The clayey sludge resulting from aggregate washing in quarries of the Marrakech region generates significant environmental impacts and adds an economic burden to the industry. This study aims to characterize these clayey sludges in order to explore their potential for ceramic applications. Fifteen samples were collected from various quarries along the major waterways of the Marrakech region. The physical properties of the clayey materials were analysed according to particle-size distribution and plasticity limits. The mineralogical composition was determined using X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The chemical composition was determined using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The carbonate and volatile contents were determined by calcimetry and loss on ignition at 500°C and 950°C, respectively. SiO2 and Al2O3 are main constituents, while quartz, feldspars and clay minerals are the main phases, along with minor calcite and hematite. Illite is the dominant clay mineral, followed by kaolinite and chlorite. The clayey material exhibits low to medium plasticity and variable particle-size distributions. The chemical composition of these sludges confirms their potential for red ceramic applications. However, their low plasticity, variable particle-size distribution and mineralogical composition, characterized by a low clay mineral content, limit their direct applicability. To improve their suitability for ceramic production, adding clay-rich tempers is essential to enhancing their mineralogical composition, granulometry and plasticity. Furthermore, the results provide a valuable guide for selecting local materials for Marrakech pottery and can serve as a model for other regions.

The Indigenous pottery of Nagaland is handmade, a tradition passed down through generations. It remains a key part of social and religious life, serving as a means of expression. Modern indigenous pottery practices involve taboos and beliefs from the clay extraction to the firing of the pots. This paper examines the ethnographic aspects of pottery making, the tradition, and the operational chain. It reviews the beliefs, taboos, and rituals observed during clay mining and firing to evaluate their connection to pottery production from a socio-cultural and socio-religious perspective.

Diet and material culture are interlinked, and examination of organic residues in ceramic vessels permits the simultaneous study of both; exemplified here in the analysis of early-medieval pottery from England and Denmark for biomarkers indicative of fish processing, a possible dietary indicator of Scandinavian migration during the Viking Age (c. AD 793–1066). While almost a quarter of sampled Danish pots were used to cook fish, diagnostic aquatic markers were securely identified in only 13 of 298 English vessels. Geographic homogeneity and temporal persistence in processing terrestrial animal fats instead suggest that Scandinavian settlers pragmatically conformed to Anglo-Saxon culinary traditions.

In Indigenous Lenca communities of western Honduras, craft production is a central livelihood that has economically supported artisan households for generations. In some communities, crafts like pottery are regarded as cultural patrimony, with socioeconomic and spiritual value that reflects Lenca identity. However, perceptions of which crafts are “Lenca tradition” and what it means to be a Lenca person in Honduras today vary greatly among the general public. Narratives of indigeneity are heavily shaped by the state and national tourism industry. Promotion of Lenca crafts, considered most commercially appealing, dominates national tourism marketing but often misaligns with how Lenca artisans define themselves and their craft practices. Constructions of “national identity” distance artisans from directly interacting with tourists and disconnect them from controlling the promotion of their respective identities and livelihoods. Through a comparative analysis of craft practices in five Lenca communities that are variably defined as “traditional” either in the tourism industry or by artisans themselves, this work asks: How have state-constructed definitions of “tradition” shaped public understanding of Indigenous Lenca identity in Honduras, from the colonial period to the present? How do these misconceptions impact Lenca artisans participating in the national tourism industry? How do Lenca artisans themselves define their contemporary craft practices and react against inaccurate identity narratives affecting their livelihoods? Drawing on neoliberal multiculturalism, this project explores complex and changing definitions of “tradition” and reactive strategies artisans use to maintain craft livelihoods and reclaim ownership of what it means to be an Indigenous Lenca artisan in Honduras today.

Recent excavations on the A14 Cambridge-to-Huntingdon Road Improvement Scheme have revealed that pottery-making was an important aspect of the economies of early Roman rural communities living in the densely settled landscape of southern Cambridgeshire, UK. This paper discusses the seven known ‘Lower Ouse Valley’ pottery-making sites as reflective of local rural economy and social interaction, highlighting the different scales at which there is evidence for social networks being in play in the constitution of this newly discovered pottery industry. It is argued that the density of rural settlement in this area helped facilitate the emergence of a coherent but informally defined ceramic tradition, embodied as a system of technical knowledge shared predominantly between neighbours and as features of non-specialised social interactions.

Excavations at Alcatrazes, the seat of Cape Verde’s short-lived second captaincy, have exposed a Portuguese colonial settlement, demonstrating continued occupation after the relocation of its official offices. The results include insights into early Luso-African practices and the presence of West African and local-made pottery, with environmental samples ‘clocking’ colonial introductions.

This study explores the emergence and dispersal of grog-tempered pottery in south-eastern Europe, particularly southern Romania. During the second half of the sixth millennium bc, a dynamic zone emerged between the Danube and the Carpathians, facilitating the spread of innovations through multiple communication routes. Among these innovations, grog-tempered pottery began to appear around 5300/5000 bc and became prevalent during the fifth millennium. Despite being frequent, its origins, dispersal, and intensity remain poorly understood. This article aims to trace and explain the emergence and distribution of grog-tempered pottery in southern Romania. By integrating data from existing literature with new results from macroscopic and archaeometric analyses of twelve pottery assemblages from Middle Neolithic, Early, and Middle Chalcolithic sites, the author seeks to provide insights into the significance of the first grog-tempered pottery in a south-eastern European context.

Iroquoian groups inhabiting the St. Lawrence Valley in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD practiced agriculture and supplemented their diet with fish and a variety of wild plants and terrestrial animals. Important gaps remain in our knowledge of Iroquoian foodways, including how pottery was integrated to culinary practices and the relative importance of maize in clay-pot cooking. Lipid analyses carried out on 32 potsherds from the Dawson site (Montreal, Canada) demonstrate that pottery from this village site was used to prepare a range of foodstuffs—primarily freshwater fish and maize, but possibly also other animals and plants. The importance of aquatic resources is demonstrated by the presence of a range of molecular compounds identified as biomarkers for aquatic products, whereas the presence of maize could only be detected through isotopic analysis. Bayesian modeling suggests that maize is present in all samples and is the dominant product in at least 40% of the potsherds analyzed. This combination of analytical techniques, applied for the first time to Iroquoian pottery, provides a glimpse into Iroquoian foodways and suggests that sagamité was part of the culinary traditions at the Dawson site.

The locally made colour-coated ware vessel known as the Colchester Vase is argued to be a commissioned piece recording a performance in the town. The inscription on the vessel, cut pre-firing, names individual arena performers depicted en barbotine. One name, Memnon, is argued to be a ‘stage name’ taken from a protagonist in the Trojan war. The connection of another combatant, Valentinus, to the 30th legion is re-considered as evidence for gladiators linked to the Roman army. The Vase's final use was as a cremation urn. Osteological and isotopic analysis reveals the cremated remains to be those of a non-local male of 40+ years; unlikely to be one of the performers, he may nevertheless have been closely connected to the event.

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de estudios experimentales realizados en pastas cerámicas con el objetivo de comprender las elecciones técnicas realizadas por los grupos cazadores-recolectores que habitaron el curso inferior del Río Colorado (transición pampeano-patagónica oriental) en los últimos 2000 años aP aproximadamente. A tal efecto, con la guía de ceramistas locales, se realizaron ensayos tanto en el campo como en el laboratorio, empleando materias primas (arcillas y arenas) obtenidas del área de estudio. Durante las tareas de campo se realizó el testeo inicial y la cocción de las materias primas, actividades que se repitieron en el laboratorio. A esto se agregó una batería de estudios arqueométricos (e.g., petrografías, DRX, FTIR, SEM-EDAX) cuyos resultados fueron comparados con la información arqueológica del área. En este sentido, la composición de las materias primas, las temperaturas y condiciones de quema, así como los patrones tecnológicos de las pastas experimentales, son concordantes con las registradas en las cerámicas arqueológicas. La integración de estos datos indicaría la producción preponderantemente local de las vasijas como también la transmisión de una práctica alfarera a lo largo del Holoceno tardío.

Countering the passive representation of rivers in many previous accounts of later prehistory – as static vessels for spectacular deposits, highways for transport and communication, and backdrops for settlement and farming – this paper asks if and how rivers actively shaped prehistoric lives. Rivers have long been hailed as conduits for prehistoric materials and ideas. However, positive archaeological correlates of the processes involved are notoriously difficult to identify and have rarely been scrutinised in detail. Using the example of Late Bronze and Early Iron Age pottery in the east of England (1150–350 bc), we examine in detail how prehistoric pottery-making traditions cohered around river valleys over an extended time period and were thus, to a certain extent, generated by rivers. Drawing on wider evidence for the flow of people and things in this region we build a broader multi-dimensional account of how people, objects, and practices moved in a period of diverse lifeways in which the makeup of human mobility is not well understood. In doing so, we hope to tether abstract arguments about the active role of rivers and other non-human elements in shaping past lives and to approach the often missing ‘middle ground’ – small-scale movements at local and regional scales – in existing archaeological discussions about mobility.

Biophysical conditions played a fundamental role in early human colonization of insular territories, particularly in food-producing societies dealing with limited resources and the challenges of maintaining a sustainable carrying capacity. Studies on past human colonization of small oceanic islands thus offer insights into economic plasticity, ecological impacts, and adaptation of early food-producing groups. On the coast of southern Chile, early evidence is dated to 950 cal BP of island colonization by coastal populations with mainland subsistence systems based on the exploitation of marine resources, along with gathering, managing, and cultivating plants and hunting terrestrial animals. Strikingly, the extent to which these mixed economies contributed to insular colonization efforts is largely unknown. Here we used organic residue analysis of ceramic artifacts to shed light on the subsistence of populations on Mocha Island in southern Chile. We extracted and analyzed lipids from 51 pottery sherds associated with the El Vergel cultural complex that flourished in southern Chile between 950 and 400 cal BP. Chemical and stable isotope analysis of the extracts identified a range of food products, including C3 and C4 plants and marine organisms. The results reveal the central role of mixed subsistence systems in fueling the colonization of Mocha Island.