Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande ValleySouthern Rio GrandeMiddle Rio GrandeMiddle-Southern Rio Grande Glaze WareCieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow-polychrome

Type Name: Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow-polychrome

Period: 1325 A.D. - 1425 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande Valley
Branch: Southern Rio Grande
Tradition: Middle Rio Grande
Ware: Middle-Southern Rio Grande Glaze Ware


First posted by Dean Wilson 2012

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow was defined by Mera (1933). This type is similar to Agua Fria Glaze-on-red in style, but exhibits a light-colored slipped background. Slip color varies from yellow, white, cream, tan, and light brown. Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow was the last of the glaze wares to have a simple straight rim to be produced. Bowls are slipped and unpolished on both surfaces, but are usually painted on the interior surface only. Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow is very similar to Aqua Fria Glaze-on-red in vessel shape and design styles, but exhibits distinctive combinations of clay paste and slip that may indicate some production specialization including in the Galisteo Basin area. Temper distributions associated with Cieneguilla Glazed on yellow and polychrome recovered over wide areas indicate increased specialization of production particularly at San Marcos Pueblo (Morales 1997; Schleher 2010; Warren 1979. The production range estimated for Cieneguilla is A. D. 1325-1425 (Warren 1979), although for areas south of Albuquerque, a later range of A.D. 1375-1400 is proposed (Hayes, Young and Warren 1981).

Painted decorations tend to be well executed and black to brown in color. Designs are very similar to those noted on Aqua Fria Glaze-on-red but have a tendency to be slightly larger and bolder. There is also a more frequent use of slashed or crossed lines below the rim. There was a slight decline in the frequency of vessels decorated with banded designs and increase in all-over designs as compared to Aqua Fria Glaze-on-red. Banded panels are subdivided and organized similarly as noted for Aqua Fria Glaze-on-red. Bowls commonly exhibit exterior decorations, but these tend to be limited to sparsely distributed or single pair of oblique dashes, "X" or “+” shaped marks. Some examples exhibit small unit designs on the exterior. Cieneguilla Glaze-Polychrome has also been sometimes used to describe similar glaze ware that also incorporates red matte paint into small red-filled areas outlined by glaze paint into the design field. These most commonly include straight or oblique double-ended keys along areas just below the rim in bowl exteriors. This use of red glaze filling between glaze decorations represents an important innovation that continued through the glaze ware sequence.

References:
Hayes, Alden C., Jon N. Young, and A.H. Warren
1981 Contributions to Gran Quivira Archaeology, Gran Quivira National Monument, New Mexico. Publications in Archaeology No, 17, National Park Service, Washington D.C.

Mera H. P.
1933 A Proposed Revision of the Rio Grande Glaze Paint Sequence. Laboratory of Anthropology Technical Series Bulletin No. 5. Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Morales, Thomas M.
1997 Glazeware Pottery Production and Distributionin the Upper-Middle Rio Grande Valley. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Schleher, Kari L.
2010 Ceramic Production at San Marcos Pueblo New Mexico. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Warren, A. Helene
1979 The Glaze Wares of the Upper Middle Rio Grande. In Archaeological Investigations in Cochiti Reservoir, New Mexico, Vol. 4: Adaptive Changes in the Northern Rio Grande Valley, edited by J. V. Biella and R. C. Chapman, pp. 187–216. Office of Contract Archaeology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.




Related Photos

Cieneguilla Glaze Polychrome (interior surface) bowl sherds

Cieneguilla Glaze Polychrome (exterior surface) bowl sherds

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Polychrome bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Early Glaze-on-yellow jar

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow bowl

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow sherds

Cieneguilla Glaze-on-yellow sherds