Petrography, Production, and Provenance of Ceramics From La Blanca, Guatemala

The Middle Preclassic (900-600 B.C.E.) was a critical time of political and social centralization in the Guatemalan Pacific coastal plain. Of particular interest is the site of La Blanca, which had an influx of peoples from the site of Ojo de Agua in the Mazatan zone subsequently making La Blanca one of the largest communities to rise in the region and possibly develop urbanization. To reconstruct elements of everyday life I use excavated ceramic refuse to observe dynamics surrounding three households. This, in turn, elucidates components of La Blanca’s domestic economy associated with the manufacturing of ceramics. To observe the manufacturing dynamics around ceramic production, I have adapted William Dickinson’s methods of mapping regional interaction spheres using petrography. The adapted Dickinson method entails a review of local geologic terrain and the collection of 90 mostly diagnostic sherds of determinable vessel form from excavations at La Blanca. Petrographic examination of sherd thin sections has shown three distinct compositional groups: Mineralic, Volcanic, and Vitric. From these groups, representative samples were selected, and point counted using the Gazzi- Dickinson method. To correlate sherd samples to potential sources, I sampled three modern sands and received seven additional sands from Dr. Neff at California State University Long Beach. These samples were analyzed using the same methods as the sherds; the results suggest a local geologic provenance for raw materials and the use of open sources among each of the households. Given the variability of composition and material characteristics within and among each of the households, it appears that each household was producing their own pottery.