Additive Technologies Group Midlevel Research Design

This document is an extension of work begun by William A. Lucius, and its substance owes much to his foresight in the design of the Dolores Archaeological Program ceramic analysis system. Scott Travis authored a draft research design for ceramics which was helpful during the writing of portions of the present version. Dean Wilson and Rob Waterworth provided intense discussions of the interpretation of ceramic data, and their arguments and ideas have shaped and continue to shape Dolores
Archaeological Program ceramic analysis. Linda Hart, Mark Hovezak, Gail Snyder, Rob Waterworth, and Dean Wilson contributed to both the ideas presented here and the clarity of presentation by reviewing sections of the manuscript as they were written. Final reviews by David A. Breternitz, Allen E. Kane, Timothy A. Kohler, William D. Lipe, and Christie Robinson improved both the content of the design and its integration with the overall goals of the Dolores Archaeological Program.

The Additive Technologies Group of the Dolores Archaeological Program is responsible for analyses of ceramic and worked vegetal artifacts. Preliminary analyses are carried out on items of each material class to provide descriptive data for field reports and for inventory control. Ceramic data include temper classification and technological attributes as well as typological affiliation and vessel form. Descriptions of worked vegetal artifacts include both material identifications and technological attributes. Ceramic data are maintained in a computer file, but vegetal descriptions are kept as paper records. Intensive analyses are also carried out on subsets of these material classes to provide data for specific research problems.

Both the preliminary and intensive analyses are designed to satisfy the data needs of the program research design. Economy and adaptation are evaluated in terms of patterns of resource use as contrasted with resource availability, ceramic and basketry manufacturing technology, the use of ceramic vessels, and evidence of the organizational aspects of ceramic
production. Ceramic data are being investigated as proxy measures of human population and site occupation duration, and they provide evidence for instances of immigration into the project area. Studies of social organization include interaction measures based on local exchange of ceramics and on the evaluation of the distribution patterns of "higher cost" ceramics between sites and households. Foreign interactions are studied through ceramic exchange patterns both within and without the Mesa Verde region, and ceramic dating using typology, regression, and seriation provides the temporal control for studies of culture process.