Investigating pottery vessel manufacturing techniques using radiographic imaging and computed tomography: Studies from the Late Archaic American Southeast

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Advances in image acquisition and processing, including the increasing availability of computed tomography (CT), have expanded the research potential for radiography. This paper employs recent radiographic advancements to investigate how hand-formed pottery was manufactured, with a focus on defining “micro-techniques” that may be isomorphic with past social groups. By creating and imaging experimental vessels, unique structural “fingerprints” are defined for a number of micro-techniques, which are then used to categorize assemblages from two contemporaneous and neighboring archaeological sites. Results suggest that the two sites were occupied by distinct potting communities and that radiographic imaging can be a powerful tool for determining the presence of past social groups.