Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Technological Analysis of Lead Glazed Ceramics

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Innovation and new technologies, when properly applied, can serve as a driving forces for human betterment. The human propensity to invent is not limited to historic times and archaeology can provide insight into how it developed over millennial time scales. This project does this as well as contributing to writing the prehistory of America's past.Under the supervision of Dr. David Killick, Brunella Santarelli will reconstruct the technology of production of Pueblo I (ca. 700-850 CE) glaze paints from the Upper San Juan region, southwest Colorado. These were the first glaze paints invented in the Americas. Southwestern glaze paints are unique in that they were used as decorative elements instead of as protective surface coatings. Despite recent interest in the later Pueblo IV glaze paints of New Mexico (ca. 1275-1700 CE), the Pueblo I glaze paints have remained largely ignored by archaeologists due to their limited temporal and spatial distribution. This research project proposes the first analysis and technological reconstruction of the Pueblo I glaze paints since the 1930's. It will examine the composition, microstructure and isotope signatures of the Pueblo I glaze paints in an effort to reconstruct the technology of their production. This project will analyze samples collected during the Animas-La Plata (ALP) project, a large-scale CRM project carried out in the vicinity of Durango, Colorado. The ALP project was selected for sampling because of the many glaze-painted ceramics recovered and because the excavations were extensively documented and fully published. This project will use a hybrid approach, coupling advanced materials science techniques with a framework of social theory to understand the role of these ceramics in the context in which they were produced. These early glaze paints have the potential to provide important information regarding both technology of production as well as the relationships and interactions of potters during this period in the Upper San Juan region, and the data collected in this project will be used to understand the social circumstances that promoted the spread and eventual decline of this technological innovation. This project aims to have broader impacts beyond the contribution to the technological knowledge of Southwest ceramics. This project will provide an example of the exciting research that can be done with the stored collections of large public projects, which remain a woefully underutilized resource for intellectual inquiry. The results of this project will be disseminated to both academic and public audiences, through outreach at the University of Arizona and through peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, the data produced in this project will be submitted to online databases for public access. Finally, the research and results will be shared with the Native Nations Advisory Board, and the findings of this project may contribute to efforts for revitalization of glaze traditions arising from recent interest of this technology in modern Pueblos.