Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande ValleyNorthern Rio GrandeGreater Tewa Basin (Northern Tewa)Northern Rio Grande Gray WareTesuque Smeared Corrugated

Type Name: Tesuque Smeared Corrugated

Period: 1200 A.D. - 1450 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande Valley
Branch: Northern Rio Grande
Tradition: Greater Tewa Basin (Northern Tewa)
Ware: Northern Rio Grande Gray Ware


First posted by Dean Wilson 2012

Tesuque Smeared-indented Corrugated was defined by Mera (1935). Tesuque Smeared Indented as defined here refers to gray wares with exterior corrugations that have been partly but not completely obliterated resulting in treatments with low relief as compared to earlier corrugated forms (Habicht-Mauche 1993; Powell 2002; Wilson 2008; 2011). This is a common type in assemblages throughout much of the Rio Grande regions dating from A.D. 1200 to 1450.

Examples assigned to this type exhibit patterns similar to those classified as indented corrugated but with smeared coils which have been pushed down resulting in a series low ridges surrounded by shallow rounded or diamond-shaped dimples. These shallow ridges are commonly oriented horizontally or diagonally although a few examples are vertical. Surfaces are commonly dark. In the Rio Grande region, Tesuque Smeared Indented was the most common gray ware from components dating to the middle and later spans of the Coalition period as well as the very early part of the Classic period. There is a tendency for examples associated with very late Coalition and early Classic period components to exhibit increasingly obliterated surfaces ultimately resulting in a return to the manufacture of utility wares with plain exterior surfaces during the late prehistoric and early historic periods (Wiseman 2014). Corresponding with changes in surface texture is a shift in paste and temper. Smeared Corrugated from sites in the valleys of the Rio Grande from components dating to the early and middle coalition period tend to exhibit large granite temper and lighter and harder pastes. Those from assemblages dating to the later span of the Coalition period and early part of the Classic period tend to exhibit very dark colored, soft, crumbly pastes with finer igneous temper with numerous fine micaceous particles indicative of the use residual clays (Habicht-Mauche 1993 Wilson 2011). Differences in variation of surface and paste noted in later smeared corrugated forms seems to have formed the basis for definition of Cundiyo Micaceous-indented as named by Mera (1935) as a type associated with Wiyo Black-on-white. I tend not to distinguished smeared corrugated types during analysis (Wilson 2011), but instead note the occurrence of utility wares exhibiting probable residual pastes for the subset of smeared corrugated gray wares for which temper is recorded. A tendency toward the production of smeared gray wares with thinly spaced unindented coils formed the basis for the definition of Cordova Micaceous-ribbed by Mera (1935). I also tend to assign pottery exhibiting these traits to the Smeared Corrugated category.

References:
Habicht-Mauche, Judith A.
1993 The Pottery from Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico; Tribalization and Trade in the Northern Rio Grande. Arroyo Hondo Archaeological Series, Volume 8. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.

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

Powell, Melissa S.
2002 Ceramics. In From Folsom to Fogelson: The Cultural Resources Inventory Survey of Pecos National Historic Park, Vol. I, edited by G. N.Head and J. D. Orcutt, pp. 237–304. Intermountain Cultural Resource Management Professional Paper No. 66, Santa Fe.

Wilson, C. Dean

2008 Ceramic Analysis for the Land Conveyance and Transfer Project, Los Alamos National Laboratory. In The Land Conveyance and Transfer Data Recovery Project: 7,000 Years of Land Use on the Pajarito Plateau, Vol. 3: Artifact and Sample Analysis, edited by Bradley J. Vierra and Kari M. Schmidt, pp. 125–256. Cultural Resource Report No. 273. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos.

2011 Analysis of Pottery Recovered from Prehistoric Contexts. In Ogapogeh, the White Shell Water Place: The Prehistoric Component at El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA 1051), by S. L. Lentz, pp. 187–224. Archaeology Notes, 438. Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.

Wiseman Regge N.
2014 Introduction to Mera’s “Ceramic Clues to the Prehistory of North Central New Mexico. In Since Mera: The Original Eleven Bulletins, With Essays and Opinions Derived from Recent Research, edited by E. J Brown, R. N. Wiseman and Rory P. Gauthier, pp 197-223. Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque.




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Tesuque Smeared Corrugated jar

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Tesuque Smeared Corrugated jar

Tesuque Smeared Corrugated jar