Specialization of ceramic production: A sherd assemblage based analytic perspective |
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Authors: | Amy J. Hirshman William A. Lovis Helen P. Pollard |
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Affiliation: | 1. Division of Sociology and Anthropology, P.O. Box 6326, 317 Knapp Hall, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA;2. Department of Anthropology and MSU Museum, 354 Baker Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA;3. Department of Anthropology, 354 Baker Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA |
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Abstract: | One expectation of emergent complexity is that as ceramic craft specialization increases it is reflected by increasingly homogeneous products due to the modified organization of craft production by specialists. This question has most often been addressed by analysis of sub-sets of larger ceramic assemblages consisting of intact vessels from idiosyncratic contexts. However, excavations often do not yield appropriate whole vessel sub-sets. In order to evaluate the changing context of the organization of ceramic production, we engage a robust methodological approach to the analysis of ceramic sherd assemblages, rather than intact vessels, rooted in cluster analysis but which we rigorously evaluate by other means. We successfully employ this method to assess changes in the organization of ceramic production through a 1000 year sequence leading to the emergence of the Tarascan state, and conclude in this case that no significant reorganization of ceramic production occurred with Tarascan state formation. |
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Keywords: | Archaeological assemblage Cluster analysis Tarascan state Organization of ceramic production |
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