Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande ValleyNorthern Rio GrandePecosPecos White White WareRowe Black-on-white

Type Name: Rowe Black-on-white

Period: 1300 A.D. - 1425 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Greater Upper Rio Grande Valley
Branch: Northern Rio Grande
Tradition: Pecos
Ware: Pecos White White Ware


First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2014

Rowe Black-on-white recovered during investigations of Pecos Pueblo was initially described by Kidder and Amsden (1931) and named by Mera (1935). This type is similar to Galisteo Black-on-white but is distinguished by surface characteristics and the use of coarse high iron micaceous clays. While this type appears to have been relatively common in some of the components at Rowe Pueblo and Pecos Pueblo(Cordell 1998; Kidder and Amsden 1931), the amount of pottery assigned to Rowe Black-on-white during a survey of Pecos National Park was extremely low (Powell 2002). This low frequency may indicate that white ware pottery exhibiting the characteristics defined for Rowe Black-on-white was not widely produced. This type dates from about A.D. 1300 to 1425.

This type is often tempered with siltstone and sandstone sometimes along with sherd fragments (Cordell 1998). Paste is gray to brown in color, and friable and sandy. Forms tend to be represented by bowls with a white slip that is usually applied on interior and exterior surfaces. The slip is often thin and unevenly applied but can sometimes be relatively thick and crackled. Paint is applied in organic paint, and designs are similar to that noted for late forms of Galisteo Black-on-white. Rims are sometimes ticked. Designs are similar to that on other Coalition period forms but tend to be sloppily applied. Designs are organized as a band with multiple or single framing lines. Decorations are dominated by solid lines which include stepped triangles, straight and zigzag lines, and dots. A Poge variety of Rowe Black-on-white has been used to describe similar pottery common in assemblages at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo (Habicht-Mauche 1993).

References:
Cordell, Linda S.
1998 Before Pecos; Settlement and Aggregation at Rowe, New Mexico. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Anthropological Papers No.6, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Kidder, Alfred V., and Charles A. Amsden
1931 The Pottery of Pecos, Volume I, The Dull-Paint Wares. Papers of the Southwestern Expedition, No. 5, Yale University Press, New Haven.

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. Laboratory of Anthropology Technical Series Bulletin No. 8. 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, New Mexico.




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