Ancestral Pueblo: Southern Colorado Plateau (Anasazi)Eastern (Mountain) AnasaziGallinaGallina Gray WareGallina Gray-Striated-Neckbanded-Coiled-Punched-Corrugated

Type Name: Gallina Gray-Striated-Neckbanded-Coiled-Punched-Corrugated

Period: 1050 A.D. - 1300 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Southern Colorado Plateau (Anasazi)
Branch: Eastern (Mountain) Anasazi
Tradition: Gallina
Ware: Gallina Gray Ware


First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2012

Distinctive utility ware forms dominating Gallina assemblages were first noted by Mera (1935) and formally described by Hibben (1949). Pottery assigned to Gallina utility ware types are distinguished from Gallina Black-on-white by surfaces that are not polished or painted, and represent the overwhelming majority of pottery from assemblages in Gallina sites (Fiero 1978; Hawley-Ellis 1988; Hibben 1949; Seaman 1976).

The dominance of this type during relative late periods reflects the persistence of the production of smoothed utility wares long after the dominance of vessels exhibiting corrugated textures in surrounding regions. Paste of Gallina Gray tends to be coarse, gritty and crumbly, although walls are fairly thin and hare. The paste characteristics and hardness of the this pottery indicates that Gallina Gray was produced using similar types of clays and firing technologies as other contemporaneous utility ware types. Pastes are usually white to gray and occasionally buff or brown in color. Distinct cores are sometimes present. Surfaces are usually white to gray and occasionally brown in color. Tempering material for the great majority of sherds consists of large to moderately sized sub-rounded sand grains, although a low number of sherds are tempered with a very fine crushed sandstone or are apparently not tempered containing small silt-sized particles representing natural inclusions in the clay. The majority Gallina Gray sherds appear to have derived from wide mouth jars. Some of these jars exhibit flat or indented bottoms, although forms with distinct conical shaped bottoms are relatively common. Other forms include bowls, canteens, seed jars.

While the great majority of the Gallina Gray sherds from most sites are smoothed and obliterated on both sides, variation concerning the presence of surface texture, particularly along the rim commonly occurs. In some areas, forms exhibiting distinct surface striations are relatively common. Other textures that occur in low frequencies of Gallina gray wares include examples exhibiting single or multiple coils, incised designs decorations, punched decorations, basket impressions, and in extremely rare cases surfaces resembling corrugations. Examples of pottery with pastes indicative of production in the Gallina region exhibiting these treatments are assigned to different varieties of Gallina Gray.

References:
Fiero, Kathaleen
1978 Archaeological Investigations at LA 11850: A Gallina Phase Village on the Continental Divide Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, Laboratory of Anthropology No. 11F, Santa Fe.

Hawley Ellis, Florence
1988 From Drought to Drought; Gallina Culture Patterns. Sunstone Press, Santa Fe.

Hibben, Frank
1949 The Pottery of te Gallina Complex. American Antiquity 14(3):194-202.

Mera, H. P.
1935 Ceramic Clues to the Prehistory of North Central New Mexico. Technical Series Bulletin No. 8, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe.

Seaman, Timothy J.
1976 Excavation of LA 11843: An Early Stockaded Settlement of the Gallina phase. Laboratory of Anthropology Note N. 111g, Santa Fe.




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