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| Ancestral Puebloan greyware | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ancestral Puebloan greyware |
| Caption | A greyware bowl from a Pueblo site |
| Region | Southwestern United States |
| Period | Pueblo I–Pueblo IV |
| Material | Clay, temper |
| Techniques | Coiling, firing |
Ancestral Puebloan greyware is a class of ceramic production associated with prehistoric communities in the American Southwest, characterized by gray to buff cores and varied surface treatments across sites such as Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Bandelier National Monument, and Aztec Ruins National Monument. Scholars from institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of New Mexico, University of Colorado Boulder, and School for Advanced Research have examined greyware in relation to settlement patterns at places like Puye Cliff Dwellings, Betatakin, Hovenweep National Monument, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, and Tonto National Monument. Excavations by teams led by figures such as Neil Judd, A. V. Kidder, Sylvanus Morley, Ralph Linton, and Richard Wetherill contributed to typological frameworks later refined by researchers at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Arizona State University, and University of Arizona.
Greyware appears in ceramic assemblages dated across periods referenced in literature on Pueblo I period, Pueblo II period, Pueblo III period, and Pueblo IV period occupations at major sites like Chimney Rock National Monument, Chaco Canyon, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, La Plata County sites, and San Juan River Valley. Regional surveys published in reports for the National Park Service and theses from the University of California, Berkeley document distribution trajectories linked to climatic events recorded in tree-ring dating, dendrochronology, and studies by researchers affiliated with the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.
Greyware production employed clays and tempers identified in petrographic studies by analysts at the Arizona State Museum, National Museum of Natural History, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and laboratories at University of New Mexico. Temper types include crushed sherds observed at Pecos National Historical Park, volcanic ash noted in proximity to San Francisco Peaks, and mineral inclusions paralleling deposits in Colorado Plateau formations near Navajo Nation sites. Forming methods such as coiling and paddle-and-anvil finishing are documented in experimental replication projects by investigators associated with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Field Museum of Natural History, and ethnographers working with communities represented by the Pueblo of Zuni, Pueblo of Acoma, and Hopi Tribe. Firing regimes inferred from archaeometric techniques including energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and scanning electron microscopy in university facilities suggest oxidizing to reducing atmospheres comparable to protocols reconstructed by staff at Anthropological Research Facilities.
Typological schemas adopt categories developed in monographs from the Peabody Museum, Museum of New Mexico, and regional surveys compiled by archaeologists such as Emil Haury and Paul Chafin. Forms include bowls, jars, ladles, and effigy shapes similar to examples cataloged in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver Art Museum, Utah State University Eastern Archaeology Museum, and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. Surface treatments range from plain burnished surfaces seen in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to appliqué and incised motifs related to iconography documented in publications by the School for Advanced Research and comparative studies referencing specimens at the American Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian.
Chronological placement derives from stratigraphic sequences uncovered during projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration and later surveys funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Distribution maps compiled by teams from University of Colorado Boulder, New Mexico State University, and the University of Arizona trace greyware presence from the Four Corners region across the Rio Grande Valley and into marginal zones near Sonoran Desert margins documented in reports from the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of the State Archaeologist.
Functional interpretations informed by residue analysis at laboratories such as the Bioarchaeology Laboratory at Arizona State University, lipid studies carried out at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History collaborators, and microwear studies from the Peabody Museum indicate culinary, storage, and ritual uses comparable to artifact assemblages from Pueblo Bonito, Casa Rinconada, Wetherill Mesa, and Aztec Ruins. Ethnohistoric parallels drawn with practices of the Pueblo of Santa Clara, Pueblo of San Ildefonso, and Pueblo of Taos inform hypotheses about communal feasting and household provisioning observed in settlement reports by archaeologists like Stephen Lekson and Linda Cordell.
Recovery methods evolved from early surface collection by Adolph Bandelier and George Pepper to systematic sampling strategies developed by teams at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and university field schools funded by the National Science Foundation. Analytical approaches include petrography, X-ray diffraction, radiocarbon dating at facilities like the Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, and compositional sourcing using methods standardized through collaborations with the Archaeometry Laboratory at Oxford University and specialists affiliated with the Society for American Archaeology.
Greyware figures in models of interaction and exchange discussed in scholarship by Kiva architecture studies associated with Aztec Ruins National Monument and exchange networks reconstructed in monographs by Chacoan system researchers, Stephen H. Lekson, Thomas Windes, Burt Feeney, and Carol Patterson. Evidence for trade and mobility linking greyware-bearing sites to resource zones near San Juan River, Pecos River, Little Colorado River, and Gila River valleys is addressed in circulation studies supported by the National Park Service, heritage programs of the Pueblo of Zuni, and regional museum exhibitions at institutions such as the Arizona State Museum and Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.
Category:Ancestral Puebloan pottery