protohistoric plainware catalogue

This page is intended as an interactive catalogue on protohistoric plainwares in Arizona and New Mexico. The page does not have
blogging capabilities but interested participants can send information and examples (jpg) that will be posted. The purpose is to promote
communication and knowledge. The goal is to raise the information value of plainware sherd samples. Emphasis is being placed on
sherds because this is mostly what is found in field contexts. Whole vessels and vessel fragments will be posted too, but these examples
will be most beneficial when close-up images of the vessel surface (from several portions of the vessel to show variation) and
paste/cross-section/sherd profile from broken edges are included. The content of this page is intended for use in field identification.
Another page reports type descriptions and partial descriptions as they develop, but the goal in posting type descriptions is to revise
them because as they exist they are largely uninformative and not representative or inclusive of the range of variation.

PLAINWARES ARE SHOWN FROM TERRENATE PRESIDIO THAT DI PESO CLASSED AS WHETSTONE PLAIN BUT WHICH ARE ACTUALLY
PLAINWARES OF OTHER DEFINITIONS. POLISHING IS AN IMPORTANT FINISHING PROCESS THAT DIFFERENTIATES PLAINWARES. OTHER
FINISHING TECHNIQUES ARE ALSO DISTINCTIVE FOR PARTICULAR TIME PERIODS AND CULTURE GROUPS. WHILE PLAINWARES WITH A
VARIETY OF FINISHES ARE FOUND ON SOBAIPURI SITES, INCLUDING SOME OF THOSE SHOWN HERE, THEY ARE NOT WHETSTONE PLAIN IN
THE STRICT SENSE OF THE DEFINITION. NOR ARE THESE VARIETIES AS WIDESPREAD IN THE SOUTHWEST AS THOSE THAT FALL SOLIDLY
INTO THE WHETSTONE CLASSIFICATION. SOME ARE LIKELY IMPORTS.

POLISHING IS NOT COMMON FOR PRE-1770S O'ODHAM WARES AND MAY BE INDICATIVE OF THE PRESENCE OF A DIFFERENT GROUP, TRADE
WITH ANOTHER GROUP, OR IT MAY BE A LATE PREHISTORIC WARE. POLISHING OCCURS COMMONLY IN THE POST-1770 PERIOD.

LIKELY AN O'ODHAM PLAINWARE, PERHAPS COLONO WARE
MADE AFTER THE 1770S

PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT TO BE APACHE PLAIN BUT O'ODHAM
BEAN POT SHAPE, COILS VISIBLE, AS IS DIMPLING. VESSEL
FORM AND LIP AND RIM TREATMENT ARE TYPICAL OF
O'ODHAM PLAINWARES IN THE POST 1770S PERIOD, E.G.,
THOSE FROM TERRENATE PRESIDIO AND ELSEWHERE ON
THE SAN PEDRO RIVER.

FROM IMHOFF CAVE, NM

IDENTIFIED BY DENI SEYMOUR
IDENTIFIED AS APACHE PLAIN BY ALAN FERG

THE VESSEL FORM AND RIM TREATMENTS ON LATE O'ODHAM POTS
SHOWN BELOW CAN BE COMPARED TO THOSE ABOVE. THE SIMILARITY
SUGGESTS THAT THE IMHOFF CAVE VESSEL WAS TAKEN FROM THE
O'ODHAM OR MADE BY AN O'ODHAM RECRUIT BUT LATE IN TIME AS THE
SURFACE TREATMENT IS A POST-1770S CHARACTERISTIC.

THIS RECONSTRUCTED VESSEL--FOUND AT TERRENATE PRESIDIO BY DI
PESO--HAS ATTRIBUTES THAT ARE TRANSITIONAL BETWEEN THE
WHETSTONE PLAIN OF THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES AND THE COLONO
WARES OF THE POST-1770 PERIOD.

OTHER PLAINWARE VESSELS THAT DI PESO CLASSED AS WHETSTONE ARE
SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT AND WOULD NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED
WHETSTONE PLAIN. PLAINWARE WAS NOT THE FOCUS OF STUDY BACK
THEN AND SO POTTERY WITH MANY DISSIMILAR TREATMENTS AND
MATERIALS WERE CLASSED TOGETHER BY VIRTUE OF THEIR
DISSIMILARITY TO KNOWN TYPES. TOO FEW OF THESE UNUSUAL
PLAINWARE SPECIMENS WERE KNOWN AT THE TIME TO EFFECTIVELY
SORT THEM FROM ONE ANOTHER. NOW EXAMPLES ARE WIDESPREAD,
THOUGH STILL FEW IN NUMBER, PROBABLY BECAUSE SOME WERE
IMPORTED FROM GROUPS IN NORTHERN MEXICO.

Valle Bajo vessel fragment found on Castner Range in the Franklin Mountains. Likely
made by mission Indians (Piro, Tompiro, Tigua) in the post-1680s period. The vessel
has a very granular surface and soft paste.

The exterior neck of the vessel shows considerable variation in treatment, including wiping or shallow incisions limited to a small
area, red slip and polishing, and an eroded surface that is granular showing the sand inclusions and so looks unfinished or poorly
finished. Each of these might appear to be from a different vessel in sherd form.

Similar variability is apparent in surface treatment on the exterior of the vessel with matte, polished, and red-slipping visible.
Some fire clouding is also apparent or perhaps inconsistent suface darkening from use. Dribbling is also apparent on the surface,
but could be from later activity. The circular and linear voids are places where organic material has burned out, but are only visible
occasionally on the surface.

This vessel shows traces of its intermediate life at the house of the person who found it. Water staining is visible along one
side of the vessel, suggesting it was sitting at the margin of the roof's dripline. Either gray mud (or mortar or concrete)
adheres to the interior rim. A plaster-like substance has been dropped onto the exterior surface.

Polishing is not common and so it was considered that
perhaps these might be indicative of a late prehistoric
version or transitional ware. On the other hand, the sherd
on the right, shown in three photos, was OSL dated to the
1600s. This pot break was found in association with
Whetstone Plain and some flaked stone that seems to be
indicative of one of the local mobile groups. This new type
may have been obtained from nations to the south of the
modern border and brought north through trade. This notion
is reinforced by the nature of other artifacts found on this
site and because this site is spatially related to a nearby
Sobaipuri site, suggesting that this was a location where
people stayed when they were visiting.

Polishing re-occurs in the post 1700s period as well.