Date of Award
Spring 4-28-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Anthropology
First Advisor
Edward Schortman
Abstract
Investigations conducted in the Naco valley and its environs within NW Honduras from 1975-2008 have revealed multiple facilities in which ceramic containers were fired. The vast majority of these date to the Late (AD 600-800) and Terminal Classic periods (AD 800-1000). Their diverse forms and dimensions hint at variations in aspects of production including the temperatures at which the vessels were heated and the degree of control artisans exercised over the manufacturing process. One line of evidence that we have pursued in trying to describe this variability involves re-firing a sample of over 200 pottery sherds that span a wide range of domestic and decorated Late and Terminal Classic taxa derived from settlements that fashioned, and those that consumed, ceramic containers. The results of these tests are used to reconstruct the varied ways craftworkers who fabricated different classes of vessels in diverse facilities at sundry locations might have participated in the area’s political economy and to infer how their roles in those relations changed over time.
Recommended Citation
Del Giudice, Caroline, "Is it Hot Enough Yet? Reconstructing Firing Temperatures for Prehistoric Honduran Ceramics through Re-Firing Experiments" (2015). Honors Theses. 125.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/honorstheses/125
Rights Statement
All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.