Chemical assays of temper and clay: Modelling pottery production and exchange in the uplands north of the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, USA

A lack of mineralogical variation characterizes the prehistoric pottery in the uplands of central Arizona. Virtually all of the ceramics in that region were tempered with phyllite, which has previously precluded provenance analyses and the investigation of pottery production and distribution in the upland zone. As shown with assays with an electron microprobe, however, both the clay fraction and the temper fragments are chemically diverse and geographically distinct, allowing many of the phyllite-tempered wares to be sourced, thereby leading to models about the organization of ceramic production and exchange in the upland zone north of the Phoenix Basin.