Date of Award
4-1997
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Anthropology
First Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth B. Garland
Second Advisor
Dr. Michael Nassaney
Third Advisor
Dr. Allen Zagarell
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
Red-slipped and blackened, burnished, shell-tempered ceramics from the Wymer-West knoll are described and analyzed. Such ceramics have not been previously recognized or detailed in south west Michigan. Similar ceramics do occur, however, at Mississippian sites in the upper Illinois and the Mississippi River valleys. The Wymer-West knoll ceramics are thus considered to be possible trade items. An X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy test is utilized in order to compare the red-slipped ceramics with ceramics having other surface treatments. A petrographic thin section analysis is also used to distinguish the potentially imported ceramics from shell-tempered, cordmarked ceramics presumably produced at the site. Results indicate that at least one shell-tempered, red-slipped vessel was probably not locally produced. A summary of the occurrence of red-slipped and blackened, burnished ceramics from selected sites in the upper Illinois and the Mississippi River valleys is presented in the concluding chapter.
Recommended Citation
Greve-Brown, Suzannah, "Technological Analysis of Ceramic Surface Treatments at the Wymer-West Knoll (20BE132), A Mississippian Site in Southwestern Michigan" (1997). Masters Theses. 3823.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/3823