Ceramic Metatypology for Northwest Mexico
Co-Director and Co-Organizer with Ben A. Nelson
This project involves the development of a regional ceramic metatypology for Northwest Mexico. This metatypology will vastly improve our chronological control at a regional scale. The development of metatypologies in other regions has proven to be groundbreaking in terms of understanding sociopolitical developments. In Northwest Mexico, a metatypology will allow us to address how complex societies develop in frontier regions. Investigations of this nature have been thwarted in Northwest Mexico due to the lack of information about intraregional chronology and social interaction. Research has focused heavily on the co-development of, and interaction between, the US Southwest and Central and West Mexico, as well as the archaeology of local social phenomena in individual sites or settlement clusters. While these questions are important, we want to draw attention to the development of sociopolitical complexity along the northern frontier and the role intraregional interaction may have played in this process. This project will result in the creation of a ceramic metatypology and corresponding "digital-ceramoteca" that will be published and publicly available on tDAR. The metatypology will then be applied to site assemblages across the Zacatecas region, so that we can better understand the timing and adoption of regional ceramic traditions and interpret the chronological patterns of those traditions. Ultimately, this project will provide information on the synchronicity of growth and the character of interactions among regional polities. Project Participants: Dra. María Teresa Cabrero (UNAM-IIA), Dr. M. Nicolás Caretta (UASLP), Guillermo Cordova (INAH-SLP), Dr. Rodrigo Esparza (Col. Mich.), Gerardo Fernández (UAZ), Mauricio Garduño (INAH-Tepic), Dr. Peter Jiménez (INAH-Zacatecas), Dra. Lorenza López (INAH-Jalisco), Juan Ignacio Macías (UNAM-IIA), Estela Martínez (INAH-SLP), Chloé Pomédio (CEMCA), Elizabeth Puch Ku (UASLP), Jose Luis Punzo (INAH-Michoacán), Dra. Susana Ramírez (UDG), Nora Rodriguez (ENAH), Laura Solar (INAH-Zacatecas), Dr. Charles Trombold (WUSTL) |
La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Director: Ben A. Nelson (Arizona State University) La Quemada was a prehispanic hilltop settlement located in the Malpaso Valley, Zacatecas, Mexico, that served as the civic-ceremonial center for one of several polities that developed along the northern frontier of Mesoamerica during the Epiclassic period (A.D. 600-800). LQ-MVAP conducted excavations at La Quemada, as well as the secondary centers of Los Pilarillos and El Potrerito, which produced an extensive collection of material remains. Since 2008, I have worked on the project as a ceramicist and have performed analyses using the ceramic assemblage, including (1) a PIXE analysis of Pseudo-cloisonné and plainware ceramics; (2) macroscopic paste characterization of the decorated ceramic types; and (3) a vessel form analysis of the plainware types. My dissertation involved the petrographic and chemical analysis of all decorated types within the La Quemada assemblage. In my current position, I am responsible for the compilation, organization, and publication of the research conducted by the LQ-MVAP research team since the project began in the 1980s. |
Long-Term Vulnerability and Transformation Project (LTVTP)
Graduate Research Associate
Principal Investigators: Margaret C. Nelson, Michelle Hegmon, John M. Anderies and Jon Norberg LTVTP uses archaeological case studies in the arid Southwest (Hohokam, Mimbres, Zuni, Salinas, and La Quemada) to explore the concepts of resilience, vulnerability, and transformations in social-ecological systems. The long-term perspective of the archaeological record allows us to examine how social and ecological diversity interact and the configurations of such variables that contribute to short- and long-term resilience. As a Research Associate on the project, I contributed to the design of a model used to compare different social configurations in relation to subsistence economies in semi-arid environments (Freeman et al. 2014). With Michelle Hegmon, I developed a methodology for characterizing and comparing configurations of social diversity preceding and following transformations in the archaeological record (Torvinen et al. 2015). I also contributed to an effort to collect data on interaction markers (i.e., stone palettes, shell bracelets, pyrite mirrors, turquoise, jade, pseudo-cloisonné decoration, macaws, conch trumpets, and copper bells) that are interpreted as representing a form of connectivity between the U.S. Southwest and Mesoamerica. These data will be used to assess the hypothesis that, in an effort to enhance their resilience to uncertain environments, Southwestern groups adopted Mesoamerican institutions related to social organization and ceremonialism. |
Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Collaboration between NABO and LTVTP
Invited Participant
Principal Investigators: Margaret C. Nelson (Arizona State University) and Thomas McGovern (Hunter College) Similar to LTVTP, the NABO research team also investigates the concepts of resilience and vulnerability to climate change, however, their work involves case studies from the Viking Age North Atlantic. Due to the overlapping interests of our research teams, a NSF-funded Research Collaborative Network was established to address cross-case comparisons regarding responses to climate change in the past. As an invited participant in this ongoing collaboration, I have attended meetings in Edinburgh, San Diego, Akureyri, and Santa Fe. Our collaborative efforts have led to the application of innovative methodological techniques and unique comparisons between two extremely different settings (Nelson et al. 2016). Several forthcoming articles will present our findings and insights into the current challenges related to climate change. |