Ceramic Manufacture, Productive Specialization, and the Early Classic Period in Arizona's Tonto Basin

Abstract

Compositional analysis supports a model of multiple ceramic production modes during the Miami and Roosevelt phases of the early Classic period (ca. A.D. 1150-1350) in the Tonto Basin of central Arizona. We interpret temper compositional patterning to suggest that potters in most villages made some of their plain wares and red wares. In one area of the lower Tonto Basin, we believe that potters in many villages made some of their own unslipped corrugated wares. Data described in this study also suggest that specialists manufactured certain wares in particular settlements throughout the basin. Compositional homogeneity in some red wares and most slipped corrugated wares (Salado Red, Salado White-on-red) suggests that they were the objects of specialized production. Patterning in the compositional data also suggests the possibility that some Tonto Basin settlements specialized in the production of plain wares and unslipped corrugated wares, although potters also produced these two wares at the local level.