Vanishing River Volume 3: Material Culture and Physical Anthropology: Part 1: Chapters 1-6

Volume 3 of the Lower Verde Archaeological Project (LVAP) treats the material culture recovered during data recovery efforts at the Pre-Classic and Classic period sites in the project area. Volume 3, Part 1 describes the ceramic assemblages collected during LVAP field work, and provides results of stylistic and technological analysis performed on the colllections. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the analytic methods
used for ceramics and the characteristics of LVAP ceramic
collections. It furnishes the reader with
necessary information to understand the site-specific ceramic
descriptions. The chapter offers a broad look at variability in
LVAP collections, as it summarizes the distribution of wares and
their temporal and spatial parameters. The authors address methods
first; they discuss sample selection and collection sizes, classificatory
methods, and attributes that were recorded. Definitions
of variables, illustrations of attributes, and examples of
recording forms used for the descriptive analysis of ceramics
are found in Appendix L1. The authors also summarize the sample selection
methods for two specialized ceramic sourcing analyses,
a petrographic analysis and inductively coupled plasma
spectroscopy (ICPS) analysis using dual extraction techniques.
Detailed analytic methods for these studies are provided
elsewhere (see Volume 4); Appendix L2
presents the resulting data. The report of the petrographic
study conducted by Desert Archaeology, Inc. (Heidke et al.
1996) is appended separately. Chapters 2 though 6 treat the individual ceramic collections from sites and study areas in the LVAP area. Chapter 2 discusses the ceramic collections recovered from Scorpion Point Village and the results of stylistic and technological analyses performed on these collections. Chapter 3 describes the results of analyses performed on ceramics collections from the Cow Wallow site and other Pre-Classic period sites in the Bartlett Dam area. Chapter 4 presents the results of ceramic analyses performed on collections from Roadhouse Ruin and Classic period farmsteads in the Horseshoe Basin area. Chapter 5 discusses the results of analyses performed on ceramic collections from the multicomponent and limited-activity sites that were investigated in the Horseshoe Basin area. Finally, Chapter 6 treats the analysis of worked sherds and other ceramic artifacts recovered during the project.