Ceramic Typing Excercise Dogoszhi B/W

Following a type descriptions given in Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt (1998:118) and type descriptions for Dogoszhi Black-on-White and Padre Black-on-White compiled by April Peters (2020a; 2020b) and comparison with known examples of Tusayan and Little Colorado White Wares in this author's type collection, I have typed this jar body sherd as the Dogoszhi Black-on-White type of Tusayan White Ware.

Assignment to either Tusayan White Ware or Little Colorado White Ware was the most difficult aspect and required the use of a type collection. Both wares use organic paint technology, using Cleome serrulata or Rocky Mountain Bee Weed, a very important plant culturally to Pueblo peoples for food, dye, medicinal and agricultural purposes. The presence of organic paint and no trachyte temper removed any possibility of a Cibola White Ware or Chuska White Ware type (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:59). Following descriptions of paste color, texture, carbon streak frequency, temper type, surface color and slip characteristics for the two wares (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:59,105, 118; Peters 2020a; Peters 2020b) comparisons were made between this sherd and sherds of Tusayan White Ware (n=4) and Little Colorado White Ware (n=4), and a hand lens was used to examine temper after washing the sides of this sherd. This examination was useful as it was found the paste of this sherd had a generally harder texture and shattering fracture, was light gray where a carbon streak was not present, had incredibly fine sand temper (see Arazi-Coambs 2016:64-65 for descriptions of Tusayan White Ware tempered with course sand temper found in the San Juan Basin) or crushed sandstone temper that needed a hand lens to be seen, the presence of either no slip or a slip the same color as the paste and a blusish-gray tint and gritty texture to the surface consistent with Dogoszhi Black-on-White of Tusayan White Ware (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:118; Peters 2020a; Peters 2020b).

The presence of some very small angular fragments led to some doubt so comparison with know Tusayan White Ware (n=4) and Little Colorado White Ware (n=4) sherds in the author's type collection was pursued. This comparison found the technological characteristics of the sherd to be near identical to the Tusayan White Ware examples. The angular sherd temper present in the Little Colorado White Ware examples was far larger and more abundant than in this sherd. This analysis definitively narrowed down the ware to Tusayan White Ware and the presence of Dogoszhi Style painted design limited it to a single type, Dogoszhi Black-on-White.

Dogoszhi Black-on-White is a Pueblo II type, dating to CE 1040 at the earliest (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:118). Like Padre and Gallup Black-on-White, Dogoszhi Black-on-White persists into Middle/Late Pueblo III, along with the Dogoszhi Style, which ceases to be used sometime between CE 1220-1250 based on the dates for these types (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:105, 118; Kintigh, Schachner and Watts 2003:3). Interestingly, the artisans of the Chuska Mountains cease use of this design style early, around the Pueblo II/Pueblo III transition (Hays-Gilpin and van Hartesveldt 1998:119). This area has long been noted for strong ties to Chaco Canyon (Arazi-Coambs 2016:81-84) and during the Bonito Phase of Chaco Canyon, CE 940-1100, much of the gray ware and white Ware ceramics are Chuskan (Toll 1991:93-94). It is interesting that during a period of downturn for much of Chaco Canyon (Kantner 2004:127-129), the strongly engaged Chuska White Ware artisans cease to produce vessels in the Dogoszhi Style which had been quite common in the canyon from early in the sequence (Arazi-Coambs 2016:72-73), though as Arazi-Coambs (2016:72) the style is a pan-Pueblo II one, not only associated with Chaco Canyon.

Within the San Juan Basin, closer to Chaco Canyon, and in areas west of Zuni, the style seems to cease use on Cibola White Ware around the same time (Arazi-Coambs 2016:59), but in the Zuni area use continues until the early CE 1200s (Kintigh, Schachner and Watts 2003:3). Perhaps communities with more Chacoan identities ceased use of the style earlier, as it was widespread during an earlier period of the system and with changes occurring was dropped for emerging new styles. It is also possible that it was simply individual agency in ceramic producing communities and inculturation of aspiring ceramic artists varying by region that produced these patterns in the archaeological record.

References Cited

Arazi-Coambs, Sandra
2016 White Ware Ceramics from the Pueblo Bonito Mounds. In The Pueblo Bonito Mounds of Chaco Canyon: Material Culture and Fauna, edited by Patricia L. Crown, pp. 53-92. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Hays-Gilpin, Kelley and Eric van Hartesveldt
1998 Prehistoric Ceramics of the Puerco Valley, Arizona: The 1995 Chambers-Sanders Trust Lands Ceramic Conference. Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic Series No. 7. The Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff.

Kantner, John
2004 Ancient Puebloan Southwest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kintigh, Keith, Greg Schachner and Joshua Watts
2003 El Morro Valley Prehistory Project Ceramics Guide. Arizona State University, Tempe.

Peters, April
2020a Dogoszhi Black-on-White. Electronic document, https://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/wp/index.php/artifacts/pottery/tusayan-white-ware/dogoszhi-black-on-white/, accessed April 22, 2020.
2020b Padre Black-on-White. Electronic document, https://swvirtualmuseum.nau.edu/wp/index.php/artifacts/pottery/little-colorado-white-ware/padre-black-on-white/, accessed April 22, 2020.

Toll, H. Wolcott
1991 Material Distributions and Exchange in the Chaco System. In Chaco and Hohokam: Prehistoric Regional Systems in the American Southwest, edited by Patricia L. Crown and W. James Judge, pp. 77-108. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.