First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2014

Seco Corrugated was defined by Wilson and Warren (1973). Pottery assigned to this type display a combination of paste characteristics and distinct smeared corrugated treatments indicative of the last of the corrugated brown wares produced in the Mogollon Highlands (Laumbach and Laumbach 2013; Schleher and Ruth 2005; Wilson and Warren 1973).

Seco Corrugated displays typical brown ware pastes and fine volcanic rock and sand temper indicative of production in the Mogollon Highlands. Forms include both bowls and jars, and are commonly smudged and polished on the interior surface. Exterior surface textures noted for Seco Corrugated are similar to that described for Reserve Indented Corrugated except that exterior corrugations have been smoothed to the point of smearing although they are not completely obliterated. This smearing usually occurs over indented corrugated coils although in some cases it is over plain corrugated coils. The exterior appears to have been smeared while the vessel was dry but not yet fired. The high points of the formed indentations are sometimes polished.

While Seco Corrugated may occur as minority of the utility pottery in contexts dating to the late thirteenth century, this type is primarily associated with contexts dating to the fourteenth century and thus represents the last of the corrugated brown ware forms produced in the Mogollon region. While this type has been primarily described for sites in the easternmost portions of the Mogollon in south-central New Mexico, it has also been noted in areas along the Mogollon Rim in east-central Arizona. Similar exterior textures have also been noted in brown ware occurring in fourteenth century contexts in the eastern Salado, Rio Abajo, and Casa Grandes regions as well as gray wares from regions in the Rio Grande. Thus, the textures noted in Seco Corrugated reflect a very widely distributed utility ware style, and the distribution of Seco Corrugated seems to be associated with areas of the eastern and western fringes of the Mogollon Highlands that continued to be occupied into the fourteenth century, after which many of the areas that had earlier produced Mogollon tradition pottery had been abandoned.

References:
Laumbach, Toni S., and Karly W. Laumbach
2013 Clues to the Origin and Source of Seco Corrugated. In From the Pueblos to the Southern Plains: Papers in Honor of Regge N. Wiseman, edited by E. J. Brown, C. J. Condie, and H. K. Crotty, pp 87-100. Papers of the Arhaeological Society O New Mexico 39. Albuquerque.

Schleher, Kari L., and Susan M. Ruth
2005 Migration or Local Development? Technological Analysis of Corrugated Wares at the Pinnacle Ruin. Southwest New Mexico. Pottery South west 24(3-4):2-14.

Wilson, John P., and Helene Warren
1973 New Pottery Type Described: Seco Corrugated. Awanyu 1(1):12-13.

Related Photos

Seco Corrugated bowl sherd (exterior surface)

Seco Corrugated bowl sherd (interior surface)

Seco Corrugated jar sherd (exterior surface)

Seco Corrugated jar sherd (interior surface)

Seco Corrugated jar sherds (exterior surface)

Seco Corrugated jar sherd (exterior surface)

Seco Corrugated jar sherd (interior surface)