Examining the Production and Distribution of Shivwits Ware Pottery in the American Southwest

Authors

Karen G. Harry, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Timothy J. Ferguson, University of Missouri Research Reactor Center
James R. Allison, Brigham Young University
Brett T. McLaurin, Bloomsburg University of PennsylvaniaFollow
Jeff Ferguson, University of Missouri Research Reactor Center
Margaret Lyneis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2013

Publication Title

American Antiquity

Volume

78

Issue

2

First page number:

385

Last page number:

396

Abstract

Compositional analyses were undertaken to evaluate the hypothesis that Shivwits Ware pottery found in southern Nevada was not produced in that area but, instead, manufactured on the Shivwits Plateau. The evidence supports this hypothesis and indicates that large quantities of Shivwits Ware jars moved through a distribution system linking the upland areas of the western Arizona Strip with the lowlands of southeastern Nevada. This long-distance movement of utilitarian pottery is unusual for precontact North America, in that it occurred in the apparent absence of any centralized distribution mechanisms and between what would have been small, kin-based communities. The nature and the causes for the development of this distribution system are discussed.

Disciplines

Archaeological Anthropology | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Language

English

Repository Citation

Harry, K. G., Ferguson, T. J., Allison, J. R., McLaurin, B. T., Ferguson, J., Lyneis, M. (2013). Examining the Production and Distribution of Shivwits Ware Pottery in the American Southwest. American Antiquity, 78(2), 385-396.
http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.78.2.385