Ancestral Pueblo: Greater MogollonMogollon HighlandsMogollon-MimbresMogollon Brown WareAlma Scored

Type Name: Alma Scored

Period: 500 A.D. - 1000 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Mogollon
Branch: Mogollon Highlands
Tradition: Mogollon-Mimbres
Ware: Mogollon Brown Ware


First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2012

Alma Scored was defined by Haury (1936). This type is differentiated from Alma Plain or Alma Rough by numerous small shallow grooves or striations. Scored treatments consist of a series of distinctive straight or slightly curving striations which are oriented vertically on the vessel (Wilson 1999). Striated treatments are usually very close to each other. These striations are parallel in orientation, although they occasionally intersect at angles. The orientation of these striations probably resulted from the wiping of the wet vessel with a corn cob, plant brush, or other tool. While all sherds exhibiting scored treatments were assigned to this type, the great majority of Alma Scored sherds represent rim or neck sherds, indicating that scored treatments were usually executed near the rim or neck of a vessel. Scored treatments usually occur in bands beginning at the rim and measure between 20 and 60 cm in thickness. While striated portions of a vessel are unpolished, the smoothed area below is often polished. Interior portions of vessels, not exhibiting surface striations, are almost always polished. While utility ware with scored treatments occurs throughout the Southwest, the surface treatments noted for Alma scored appears to be different from those noted in any other Southwest types. Thus, Alma scored represents one of the very few examples of a decorative convention that appeared to have been almost exclusively limited to the Mogollon region. Most of the Alma scored sherds in the present study appear to be derived from cooking/storage jars, although examples of bowl rim, bowl body, jar body, seed jar, and indeterminate forms were noted. Scored treatments were present on the exterior surface only. Temper and paste is identical to that noted for other early Mogollon brown ware types. The production of this type seems to largely associated with later spans of the Pithouse period.

References:
Haury, Emil W.
1936 Some Southwestern Pottery Types. Medallion Papers No. 19, Gila Pueblo, Globe.

Wilson, C. Dean
1999 Ceramic Types and Attributes. In Archaeology of the Mogollon Highlands Settlement Systems and Adaptations; Volume 4. Ceramics, Miscellaneous Artifacts, Bioarchaeology. Bone Tools and Faunal Analysis, edited by Y.R Oakes and D.A. Zamora, pp. 5-86. Archaeology Notes 232, Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.




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Alma Scored jar sherds

Alma Scored jars