Project: page 1
PROJECT UPDATE
October 2015
October 2015
When this research was begun in 2010, three 10-years goals were set:
1. Identify and describe Basketmaker III black-on-white bowl motifs.
2. Collect data regarding site location and date range.
3. Identify distribution, both spatial and temporal, of each motif.
Over the past five years, progress has been made toward achieving these goals.
1. Nine motifs have been identified and described. These motifs are based on data from the ceramic collections of roughly 100 excavated BMIII sites in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
The nine motifs are "described" visually in this website by means of stylized drawings and approximately 2,000 photographs or digital tracings of sherds and bowls. The size to which this project has grown is actually a little overwhelming, and starting with Motif 8 I have combined several sites on a single page to reduce the number of times a reader has to click on the "Next" button.
2. For the approximately 100 sites, data regarding site location and date range have been collected. Given the scale of this project, site locations are only recorded at the county-wide level. Given the vagaries of archaeology, site dates are only classified to 50-year periods, if this type of data is available.
3. With regard to the distribution, both spatial and temporal, of each motif, this research has gone off in an unexpected direction. I had originally expected that my data would show that different motifs originated in different areas at different times. Instead, my research seems to suggest that, at least in northwest New Mexico, all nine motifs were developed either prior to or early in the Basketmaker III period. This finding is presented in my article Motifs 1-9 at Two Early Basketmaker III Sites in New Mexico in the 2015 fall issue of Pottery Southwest http://www.unm.edu/~psw/PDFs/PSW-31-3.pdf.
1. Identify and describe Basketmaker III black-on-white bowl motifs.
2. Collect data regarding site location and date range.
3. Identify distribution, both spatial and temporal, of each motif.
Over the past five years, progress has been made toward achieving these goals.
1. Nine motifs have been identified and described. These motifs are based on data from the ceramic collections of roughly 100 excavated BMIII sites in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
The nine motifs are "described" visually in this website by means of stylized drawings and approximately 2,000 photographs or digital tracings of sherds and bowls. The size to which this project has grown is actually a little overwhelming, and starting with Motif 8 I have combined several sites on a single page to reduce the number of times a reader has to click on the "Next" button.
2. For the approximately 100 sites, data regarding site location and date range have been collected. Given the scale of this project, site locations are only recorded at the county-wide level. Given the vagaries of archaeology, site dates are only classified to 50-year periods, if this type of data is available.
3. With regard to the distribution, both spatial and temporal, of each motif, this research has gone off in an unexpected direction. I had originally expected that my data would show that different motifs originated in different areas at different times. Instead, my research seems to suggest that, at least in northwest New Mexico, all nine motifs were developed either prior to or early in the Basketmaker III period. This finding is presented in my article Motifs 1-9 at Two Early Basketmaker III Sites in New Mexico in the 2015 fall issue of Pottery Southwest http://www.unm.edu/~psw/PDFs/PSW-31-3.pdf.
