First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2012

Pottery associated with this group is particularly difficult to classify, but as described here refers to forms that began to be produced during the early Spanish Colonial period during the 17th century across much of Northern New Mexico ().Pottery thought to have been produced by Tewa potters and exhibiting plain unpolished surfaces was assigned to an Unpolished Mica Slip category. Flecks of granite temper are often large and distinct in this type. This pottery exhibits a distinct slipped surface, and contains pastes and tempers similar to those noted on polished micaceous types as well as some prehistoric types. Pastes are gray to dark gray, although some examples are reddish. Temper usually consists of fairly large grains of sand or granite. Vessel walls tend to be relatively thin, and vessel forms usually consist of jars. A final type identified for this groups is Micaceous Utility Undifferentiated, which refers to unpolished sherds for which temper was not recorded.

References:
Dick, Herbert W.
1968 Six Historic Pottery Types from Spanish Sites in New Mexico. In Collected Papers in Honor of Lyndon L. Hargrave, edited by A.H. Schroeder, pp. 77-94. Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico No.1. Museum of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Eiselt, Bernice Sunday
2006 Appendix E; A Brief Guide to Identification of Historic Micaceous of the Northern Rio Grande: Including Types Attributed to Hispanic, Northern Tewa, and Jicarilla Apache Potters. In the Emergence of Jicarilla Apache Enclave Economy During the 19th Century in Northern New Mexico, pp. 519-552, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.



Wilson C. Dean
2011 Historic Indigenous Ceramic Types. In Settlers and Soldiers: The Historic Component at El Pueblo de Santa Fe (LA 1051), by S. C. Lentz and M. J. Barbour, pp 223 -234. Archaeology Notes, 438. Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.

Related Photos

Plain Unpolished Gray modified sherd

Tewa Unpolished Micaceous miniature jar