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A Quantitative Approach to the Petrographic Analysis of Ceramic Thin Sections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James B. Stoltman
James B. Stoltman*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706
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Abstract

This paper introduces a new technique for the quantitative analysis of ceramic thin sections through petrography. The technique is a version of point counting that estimates with considerable precision the amounts of human additives (temper) and natural inclusions (silt and sand) in ceramic pastes. In concert with traditional qualitative identification of mineral inclusions, this technique expands the capacity of petrography to shed meaningful light on such topics in ceramic analysis as technology, production, trade, and classification. To demonstrate the utility of the technique it is used to reassess the taxonomic status of the type Spring Hollow Incised. The results conclusively show that Spring Hollow Incised is much more closely related to a newly defined Early Woodland ceramic assemblage in the Upper Mississippi Valley region than to the Middle Woodland Linn ware to which it originally was assigned.

Information

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , January 1989, pp. 147 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1989

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