Ceramic Typology

            The use of a traditional ceramic typology allows one to compare different assemblages since the typology consists of a set of shared traits used by analysts.  This type system (see Colton and Hargrave 1937) permits the archaeologist to date a site without reliable chronometric data via comparison to known dated ceramic assemblages.  This system also provides a basis of identifying locally produced and imported ceramics and their approximate source area.

            During ceramic analysis for the Tommy Site, traditional ceramic typology was the basis for the assignment of ceramic types to sherds.  Descriptions provided by Windes and McKenna (1989) and Mills et al. (1993) were the basis for identifying Cibola ceramics, while Kayenta ceramics was classified based on Colton (1955) and Mills et al. (1993).  Peckham and Wilson (1965), along with Windes (1977), Reed et al. (1998), and Mills et al. (1993) were the primary sources used for identifying Chuska ceramics, and Breternitz et al. (1974) and Blinman and Wilson (1989) were used to identify Northern San Juan sherds.  Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesvedlt (1998) and Rinaldo and Bluhm (1956) were the primary resources used to classify Mogollon ceramics.  Rather than listing each ceramic type description, the reader is referred to these references for a detailed description of ceramic types from each ceramic series that are likely to appear in the ceramic assemblages from the Totah Field School.  A brief description of each identified ceramic series is discussed below.

Cibola Series

            Cibola Series ceramics are defined as tempered with poorly sorted sand or sand and sherd, and having a light colored paste.  White ware ceramics can have a plain, polished, or slipped surface.  Cibola slips are distinguished by a washy appearance that does not cover the entire surface of the sherd.  Designs are predominately executed in mineral paint although a single Pueblo III type (Chaco-McElmo Black-on-white) has organic-painted designs.  Cibola Gray Ware has a light gray paste and a variety of surface textures including scraped, neckbanded, neck corrugated, and corrugated.

Chuska Series

            Chuska Series pottery, by definition, is tempered with crushed trachyte and a combination of sherd and/or sand.  Chuska White Ware can have a light or dark paste, but usually the paste is dark gray or purplish in color.  Paint may be mineral, organic, or a combination thereof.  Most white ware types are slipped with a thick, chalky, white clay that flakes off easily.  Design styles associated with other black-on-white ceramic series are prevalent on Chuska ceramics.  Chuska Gray Ware has a dark paste and a variety of surface textures including scraped, neckbanded, neck corrugated, and corrugated.  Chuska Gray Ware has long been of interest because a large proportion of the utility ware found in Chaco Canyon and other areas of the San Juan Basin was apparently produced on the Chuska Slope.  Mills and her colleagues have sourced some trachyte temper to the Narbona (Washington) Pass area, suggesting that communities downslope from that area produced some of the pottery found at Chaco (Mills et al. 1997).

Northern San Juan (Mesa Verde) Series

            Northern San Juan pottery has a light paste and is tempered with andesite/diorite or crushed rock.  San Juan Red Wares were tempered with a non-igneous crushed rock.  Both mineral- and carbon-painted ceramics are identified in the Northern San Juan tradition.  Mineral painted designs are prevalent from Basketmaker III to the end of the Pueblo II period.  Pueblo III period ceramics are decorated with carbon paint and have a distinctive crackled, thick, white slip.  Design styles and gray ware surface treatments are similar to other Anasazi ceramic traditions.

Kayenta Series

            Kayenta ceramics are distinguished by a light paste tempered with well-sorted subangular quartz sand.  Kayenta and Cibola Gray Ware can be difficult to distinguish from each other.  During analysis, Tusayan Gray Ware was differentiated from Cibola Gray Ware sherds based on the degree of sorted temper particles and the style of corrugations (for a comparison see Colton 1955; Windes and McKenna 1989).  Tusayan White Ware was distinguished, in general, by a false slip, high polish, or a thin white slip.  Organic painted designs are another determining feature of Tusayan White Ware.

Rock-tempered Pottery

            Pottery classified as “rock tempered” is similar to Northern San Juan series pottery except for the appearance of the temper.  Rock-temper consists of crushed non-igneous rock such as crushed river cobbles.  These sherds generally have a light paste ranging from gray to white in color.  The white ware is similar to Northern San Juan White Ware with a pearly white polish or slip and mineral or carbon paint. The majority of rock-tempered sherds from the 1999 field season were recovered from the upper levels of the midden deposits, in association with the late Pueblo II to early Pueblo III occupation of the site.  This temper and tradition designation is probably equivalent to the San Juan crushed rock temper identified by Franklin (1991) and Wilson (1985) at other sites along the middle San Juan River valley.

Mogollon Series

            Mogollon ceramics are tempered with medium to fine-grained quartz sand or quartz sand and sherd. Vessel walls are thin and well produced.  Surface textures include plain, slipped, smudged, polished, painted, and corrugated surfaces.  Based on the 1999 field season, Mogollon sherds make up a minor constituent of the Tommy Site assemblage, but indicate exchange ties with areas south of the San Juan Basin.