RELATIONSHIPS AMONG DESIGN, TIME, SOURCE, AND GLYPHS ON PREHISPANIC JEDDITO YELLOW WARE

Abstract

This paper summarizes analysis of 236 Jeddito Yellow Ware bowls to better understand the nature of production, exchange, and social roles of Jeddito Yellow Ware bowls within their respective communities. I examine changes in design structure of Hopi yellow ware during 300 years of production prior to the establishment of Spanish missions in 1629. Patterns in production and exchange of Jeddito Yellow Ware have emerged by comparing bowls from Hopi Mesa villages—the presumed production area—to off-mesa villages, especially villages in the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster. These patterns allow a more nuanced approach to understanding the nature and production level of yellow ware pottery within the producing community and a better understanding of social ties with importing communities that dictated parameters of innovation in bowl decoration. These analyses also indicate yellow ware bowls produced after 1400, (when the majority of regional villages to which yellow ware was exchanged were abandoned), significantly increased in size suggesting primary involvement in commensal activities required to integrate increasingly diverse communities. Along with involvement in commensal activities, changes in yellow ware vessel form were strongly influenced by groups migrating into these communities. In this regard, the analysis reveals two moments of transformation in design structure, related to and explained by periods of substantial social change in Hopi Mesa communities.