ARCHAEOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH PRESS SPRING/SUMMER 2018
12
Pottery Ethnoarchaeology in the Michoacán Sierra Michael J. Shott Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry Series James Skibo, Series Editor
Examines factors that determine the use life of pottery toward a better understanding of how pottery assemblages form
A
ALSO OF INTEREST
lthough most ceramic studies describe vessel production and use, the causes and rates of pottery discard are often neglected in archaeological studies. Michael Shott presents analytical methods for determining pottery use life and demonstrates why use life should not be overlooked. Over a five-year period Shott inventoried the household pottery of about twenty-five homes in five towns in Michoacán, Mexico, recording age and types of use. He also looked at a subsample on a monthly basis over two years to estimate the magnitude of early vessel failure that would go unnoticed in an annual census. His analysis of about 900 vessels clearly shows that context does not explain use life, but vessel size does. Bigger pots last longer. Consulting other ethnoarchaeological sources for comparison and cross-cultural perspectives, Shott shows that his results can be applied to other archaeological datasets for determining numbers of original whole vessels as well as site occupation span.
Michael J. Shott is professor of anthropology at the University of Akron. He has published three monographs and several edited volumes.
Works in Stone Contemporary Perspectives on Lithic Analysis
Michael J. Shott eBook 978-1-60781-383-5 Hardcover 978-1-60781-382-8 $65.00
Integrative Approaches in Ceramic Petrography Edited by Mary F. Ownby, Isabelle C. Druc, and Maria A. Masucci eBook 978-1-60781-507-5 Hardcover 978-1-60781-506-8 $70.00s
“I found this to be an exceptionally clearly formulated and presented study and was highly impressed with the author’s rigor in carrying it out. As he points out, this is hard and inglorious work that needs to be done if we are to understand the archaeological record.” —J. Theodore Peña, professor of Roman archaeology, University of California, Berkeley, and director, Pompeii Artifact Life History Project, Pompeii, Italy
“Michael J. Shott is an eminent authority on cultural formation processes. This data-rich ethnoarchaeological study of Michoacán domestic ceramics sheds new light on quantitative transformations, from systemic context to archaeological context. Shott’s empirically grounded and well-qualified generalizations provide archaeologists who study ceramic assemblages worldwide with essential analytical tools. This spectacular book, Shott’s labor of love, is truly a magnum opus.” —Michael Brian Schiffer, author of Archaeology’s Footprints in the Modern World
June 2018 336 pp., 7 x 10 67 illustrations, 2 maps eBook 978-1-60781-623-2 Paper 978-1-60781-622-5 $45.00s