Research Training Program
Smithsonian
Institution
National Museum of Natural History
PROJECT SUMMARY
2006
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Sheena
Ketchum Paulina Ledergerber "This experience combined an amazing research position with a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and touch some of the best specimens that the museum has to offer." |
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Analysis of Ceramic Collections
from Morona Santiago, Southeast Ecuador This
is a study of the prehistoric pottery collections that were
excavated at two sites in the early 1990's in Morona-Santiago,
Southeast Ecuador. One of the sites contains a salt spring that
is used to collect salt; the ceramics from this site were used
to boil the salt water until it evaporated leaving the salt
crystals behind. Remarkably this site is still used in a very
similar manner because salt is a necessary resource for survival
in the harsh rainforest environment. These collections are very
important because they reveal information about prehistoric
life in the area which possibly parallels modern life. They
are also important because landmines were possibly placed in
the area shortly after the excavations making it virtually impossible
for any future excavations; therefore, evidence of the people
who lived in this area would be lost without this material.
The research was conducted in two parts: the pottery sherds
were analyzed based on certain characteristics, drawn, photographed,
computerized, and scanned and then a mineral analysis of the
ceramics was conducted to analyze the composition of the pottery
paste from the sites. The ceramics were analyzed to determine
the technologies used in the selection of the clay, manufacturing
and decoration of ceramics for possible traces of their sources.
This led to the conclusion that the ceramics were made by a
culture or cultures that did not specialize in manufacturing
pottery. The diversity in the types of decoration and pottery
manufacture suggests that the site was regularly used by multiple
groups of people. It also created a base for comparison with
other collections to determine the possibility of connections
between people from other regions. This
research was supported by a grant from the |