Abstract
Pottery analysis undertaken from a stylistic approach focuses primarily on observable qualities of pottery that reflect the potter's culture and individual choices in function and aesthetics. Stylistic analysis is multi-faceted, with diverse objectives and methodologies. Because pottery is often an abundant component of archaeological sites, archaeologists have developed various ways to usefully characterize a pottery assemblage. Generally this involves some form of summarization by classification, which can be based on pottery fragments, features or traits of pots/vessels, or whole vessels. The desired result is a description of the assemblage that is effective for broader research goals. Examples of research objectives that have been addressed through stylistic pottery analysis are: (1) the tracing of cultural relationships on the basis of assemblage comparisons (described in detail in this article); (2) the tracing of relative chronology through seriation of ceramic artifacts; (3) the tracing of demography through ceramic refuse; and (4) the tracing of belief systems through iconography.
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