Many archaeological arguments are based on artifact identification, but to be replicable the categories must be well defined, with researchers able to consistently identify the relevant attributes. If data are to be compared across projects or researchers, the same training and reference material should be available. Standardized visual guides for specific artifact types and contexts are valuable tools for improving identification by individuals and reducing inter-operator variation. To standardize shell temper description within Pensacola Mississippian pottery, we describe the development of a visual guide based on replicated shell-tempered pastes. We created 98 unique fired clay briquettes, varying in measured ways across four variables: shell type, particle size, particle density, and whether shell was still present or leached. The resulting briquettes were imaged and arranged for quick comparison with archaeological materials. To test the utility of this guide, we conducted a survey among professional archaeologists, assessing their confidence in and success with identifying shell temper attributes with and without the guide images. The results of the survey demonstrate the effectiveness of such tools for collaborative archaeological research. We describe the general method for producing this type of guide, which may be adapted for different pottery temper types, and provide our own images for use by others studying shell-tempered pottery.

We examine provenance data collected from three types of geological resources recovered at Goat Spring Pueblo in central New Mexico. Our goal is to move beyond simply documenting patterns in compositional data; rather, we develop a narrative that explores how people's knowledge and preferences resulted in culturally and materially determined choices as revealed in those patterns. Our analyses provide evidence that residents of Goat Spring Pueblo did not rely primarily on local geological sources for the creation of their glaze paints or obsidian tools. They did, however, utilize a locally available blue-green mineral for creation of their ornaments. We argue that village artisans structured their use of raw materials at least in part according to multiple craft-specific and community-centered ethnomineralogies that likely constituted the sources of these materials as historically or cosmologically meaningful places through their persistent use. Consequently, the surviving material culture at Goat Spring Pueblo reflects day-to-day beliefs, practices, and social relationships that connected this village to a broader mosaic of interconnected Ancestral Pueblo taskscapes and knowledgescapes.

Many anthropologists have now adopted a relational view of the culture concept. Much research has shown that, far from being bounded or self-replicating, cultures emerge through interactions between social Others. These findings are particularly important to research on borderlands and peripheries, where communities routinely encounter wide-ranging social and political diversity. We present ceramic frequencies alongside petrographic analysis from the Late Woodland component at Esseneca (38OC20) to illustrate two main points: (1) pottery types previously understood as culture historical isolates co-occur in parts of Upstate South Carolina, and (2) potters collected clays from two main geologic formations near the site. This research shows that communities in the region traveled freely, crossing cultural boundaries while acquiring potting clays. We suggest that this level of interaction between disparate social groups laid the foundation for some aspects of Mississippianization in the region.

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.