Ceramic manufacture, productive specialization, and the early classic period in Arizona's Tonto Basin

Compositional analysis supports a model of multiple ceramic production mode s during the Miami and Roosevelt phases of the early Classic period (ca. A. D. 1150-1350) in the Tonto Basin of central Arizona. We interpret temper co mpositional patterning to suggest that potters in most villages made some o f their plain wares and red wares. In one area of the lower Tonto Basin, we believe that potters in many villages made some of their own unslipped cor rugated wares. Data described in this study also suggest that specialists m anufactured certain wares in particular settlements throughout the basin. C ompositional homogeneity in some red wares and most slipped corrugated ware s (Salado Red, Salado White-on-red) suggests that they were the objects of specialized production. Patterning in the compositional data also suggests the Possibility that some Tonto Basin settlements specialized in the produc tion of plain wares and unslipped corrugated wares, although potters also p roduced these two wares at the local level.