Evaluating the Variability of Southwestern Ceramics with X-ray Fluorescence

Abstract

For the period after about 100 B.C., the Southwest has been broadly divided into four culturally distinct regions: the Anasazi, Mogollon, Hohokara, and prehistoric Yuman culture areas. Definition and identification of these areas has been based largely on extant material culture, particularly pottery and house-types. Pottery is especially important in archaeological investigations because it is unquestionably man-made and it is virtually indestructible in the dry Southwestern climate. The pottery produced by the inhabitants of the Southwest is also highly variable through time and across space, so that over 900 distinct ceramic types have been defined for Southwestern culture groups. And since potters tended to use materials available in the vicinity of their villages, materials analysis of plastic and nonplastic constituents of ceramics can aid in evaluating where pottery was made.