The peoples of the American Southwest during the 13th through the 17th centuries witnessed dramatic changes in settlement size, exchange relationships, ideology, social organization, and migrations that included those of the first European settlers. Concomitant with these world-shaking events, communities of potters began producing new kinds of wares--particularly polychrome and glaze-paint decorated pottery--that entailed new technologies and new materials. The contributors to this volume present results of their collaborative research into the production and distribution of these new wares, including cutting-edge chemical and petrographic analyses. They use the insights gained to reflect on the changing nature of communities of potters as they participated in the dynamic social conditions of their world.

Tijeras Canyon, between the eastern New Mexico plains and the Rio Grande Valley, is rich in records of the past. Possibly as early as 900 AD and intermittently for centuries after, peoples of the Southwest, attracted by the protected resources of the canyon, established settlements and villages there. Archaeological study of the canyon can be based on these population changes: patterns of growth, adaptation, and abandonment.Tijeras Canyon: Analyses of the Past is the result of extensive archaeological study of the canyon conducted by the University of New Mexico summer field school of archaeology and the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Museum of New Mexico. Research sites, close to public roads near Albuquerque, drew many observers. It was apparent to Cordell and her colleagues that laymen who observe such excavations see only a portion of the archaeologist's work-which is really complete only after evaluation and analysis of data. This book of essays was compiled to explain the unseen portion of archaeology: analysis, including the weighing of evidence and exploring of alternatives that lead to a final interpretation. To understand human adaptation, plants, animals, and climate must be studied and analyzed in detail. Each analytic chapter proceeds in the same way that the archaeologist's work does, in order to give the reader maximum opportunity to learn, analyze, and interpret along with the professional archaeologist.