For American archaeology, ceramic styles have historically played a key role in assigning different regional and temporal cultural traditions. San Francisco is one of the earliest pottery styles in northwestern Argentina (NOA; 2000-1500 BP) and has been considered a chronological marker, as it laid the foundation for the development of other ceramic traditions in the NOA region during the Formative period. It is characterized by polished incised gray pieces, bichrome designs, and zooanthropomorphic or anthropomorphic pipes. Regarding the discovery of San Francisco pottery beyond what is considered its core area—the valley of the same name in the eastern part of Jujuy Province—various interpretations have been proposed over the past three decades. These range from the effective occupation of new territories to the exchange, circulation, or imitation of vessels. Based on the composition of ceramic pastes, this research suggests the existence of specific recipes, allowing for the identification of potential local productions and testing hypotheses about the circulation or non local production of San Francisco pottery. Furthermore, the frequent incorporation of grog (chamote) into the fabric is highlighted, reflecting a cohesive manufacturing tradition that persisted over the centuries.

Ceramics play a central role in the debates around the relationship between the Viru and the Moche. A recent model considers Negative and Moche-decorated ceramics produced by potters affiliated with the elites to be the cultural markers of the Viru and Moche populations, respectively. Due to the similarity of Viru and Moche plain-wares and the presence of Castillo Decorated ceramics in Viru and Moche contexts, this model sees both types of ceramics as domestic traditions, produced by independent potters and sharing a common technique. The research we present here supports this recent model by reconsidering the social and cultural meaning associated with these ceramic types: it uses a novel approach for South America of reconstructing the chaîne opératoire by studying the traces visible on ceramics at a macroscopic and microscopic scale. The study demonstrates how these potters used their own traditions to produce decorated and undecorated ceramics. Furthermore, we found that Castillo Decorated is a type produced only by Viru potters, and we argue that its presence in Moche contexts is evidence of the numerous exchanges maintained by these two populations.

Abordamos la interacción social entre puna y valles del noroeste argentino, a través de análisis estilísticos y petrográficos de conjuntos cerámicos. Estos proceden de tres sitios asociados a una vía de circulación correspondiente al área internodal del Volcán Galán, ubicada entre los nodos Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca) y Valle Calchaquí medio (Salta). La comparación de estos estudios con información relativa a ambos nodos nos permitió constatar la utilización de esta ruta de interacción durante los períodos Tardío (ca. 900-1400 dC) e Inca (ca. 1400-1550 dC). Determinamos la circulación de recipientes de importancia estatal hacia la puna, mayoritariamente elaborados en el Valle Calchaquí. Proponemos, también, una interacción con la región de Atacama (Chile). En suma, la cerámica recuperada materializa la articulación de ambos lados de la cordillera de los Andes como parte de estrategias incaicas de integración implementadas en el Collasuyo.

The concept of coalescent communities has been widely used by North American archaeologists as a framework for understanding cultural responses to social upheaval. In this article we explore how the concept of coalescence helps us understand the processes that led to the emergence of aggregated settlements in the Albuquerque district of the central Rio Grande Valley around the turn of the fourteenth century. We argue that such communities emerged as strategic local responses to disruptive social and demographic trends on a macroregional scale. Specifically, we use NAA and petrographic sourcing of Western Pueblo- and Rio Grande-style glaze-painted pottery in conjunction with settlement data from the site of Tijeras Pueblo (LA581) to explore how the amalgamation of immigrant and autochthonous people, technology, knowledge, and ritual creatively and radically transformed local and regional practices of community and identity formation.

This article, on the Early Neolithic pottery from the Cabeço da Amoreira shellmidden in the Muge region of central Portugal, presents a detailed review of the evidence to date and a systematic analysis of the decorative and mineralogical characteristics of the stratified and radiocarbon-dated ceramic assemblage. A homogenous pottery manufacturing tradition seems to be present right from the beginning, including both local and non-local ceramics. The authors formulate a working hypothesis on the geographic origin of the exogenous pottery, which contributes to the discussion of the dynamics of mobility and social networks in the Neolithization of south-western Europe.