Full text of DOI:10.1557/mrs2001.15

www.mrs.org/publications/bulletin
Research Issues
Among notable Middle Sicán legacies
are its ceramic and metallurgical technolo-
gies. The metallurgy was characterized by
unprecedented, large-scale production of
arsenical bronze and tumbaga, low-karat
alloys of gold, silver, and copper employ-
ing intentional surface corrosion or deple-
tion processes to develop a rich silver or
gold color.4,5 The bronze replaced pure
copper permanently as the utilitarian metal
in northern Peru.
Following a trend set by the preceding
Moche culture, Middle Sicán potters relied
heavily on molds to produce diagnostic,
decorated ceramics such as widely distrib-
uted, single-spout bottles.6 These vessels
were made using one or more pairs of
molds. Our examination of broken and
whole vessels from tombs and a wide range
of other contexts indicates the pervasive-
ness of mold-made vessels. Middle Sicán
pottery is also characterized by its prefer-
ence for a black finish (Figure 2). Although
blackware ceramics were made by earlier
cultures, including the Cupisnique that
dates back to the first millennium B.C., they
had never attained the prominence or con-
sistent blackness of their Middle Sicán
counterparts. In fact, early Middle Sicán
blackware (ca. A.D. 900–950) appears to
have spearheaded an unprecedented “craze
for monochrome blackware” that rapidly
spread throughout much of the Peruvian
coast.7 Questions remain as to what ac-
counts for this popularity and high quality.
Peruvian Black
Pottery Production
and Metalworking:
A Middle Sicán
Craft Workshop at
Huaca Sialupe
Izumi Shimada and Ursel Wagner
Introduction
The technical sophistication and virtu-
The aim of this article is to present and
interpret the emerging results of our on-
going analysis of the 1999 excavation of a
Middle Sicán craft production site at Huaca
Sialupe on the northern coast of Peru.
osity of prehispanic Andean ceramics are
so often praised in the literature that it
may appear that there is a large body of
supportive, empirical findings. To the con-
trary, in-depth technical and more com-
prehensive technological studies have been
rare. To achieve a comprehensive under-
standing of the many facets and stages of
the technology and organization of craft
production requires a correspondingly com-
prehensive, sustained effort—one built on
interdisciplinary collaboration and long-
term regional study of environmental, his-
torical, social, and technological factors. A
holistic and contextual approach has been
used by the Sicán Archaeological Project
that began in 1978 in its effort to under-
stand the craft production, particularly
ceramics and metallurgy, of the Middle
Sicán culture that flourished on the north-
ern coast of Peru some 1000 years ago.1,2
This approach (Figure 1) has combined
(1) archaeometry, the application of meth-
ods derived from the physical and natural
sciences to archaeology; (2) archaeology,
both regional surveys to establish resources
and their human use and site excavations
of ceremonial, residential, and workshop
complexes; and (3) field and laboratory
experimentation to recreate and test tech-
nology hypothesized with input and help
from modern local artisans and experts with
scientific and technological knowledge.3
Figure 1. Graphic model of our sustained, interdisciplinary, regional study for attaining a
holistic understanding of Sicán ceramic production. “Actors’Vision” refers to the ideas
and observations of those physically carrying out the manufacturing in the replication
experiments. Diagram by Izumi Shimada and Steve Mueller.
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001
25

Peruvian Black Pottery Production and Metalworking: A Middle Sicán Craft Workshop
800ꢀC. The knowledge and insights thus
gained proved to be valuable in our study
of the Huaca Sialupe workshop.
Excavation at Huaca Sialupe
Huaca Sialupe consists of a series of
low, small mounds that together cover an
area approximately 250 m ꢁ 400 m. The
workshop occupies two contiguous, low
mounds (Mound I and Mound II), ap-
proximately 120 m ꢁ 60 m overall, located
in the eastern sector of the site. Sialupe is
situated about 13.5 km southeast of the
traditional pottery-making area of Mórrope,
a village that suffers from interrelated
problems of chronic water shortages, poor
drainage, salinization of the soil, and en-
croachment of sand dunes, all caused by
geological uplift.13 Local prehistoric and
historic potters have exploited clay deposits
formed by the stagnation of floodwaters.
A preliminary survey of Huaca Sialupe
had revealed ceramic-production debris,
primarily broken molds, heat-discolored
soil, charcoal, and ash, concentrated on
the downwind, northeast side of Mound I,
the main conical mound, about 60 m in di-
ameter and 5 m in height. The molds were
overwhelmingly those for bottles, jars,
flasks, and shallow and deep bowls that
are diagnostic Middle Sicán in either form
or decoration. The site was hypothesized
to have been a settlement containing a
workshop engaged in mold-based, fine
blackware pottery production. It is further
believed to have been a satellite settlement
of the site of Huaca Pared-Uriarte, situ-
ated about 1 km to the south. The latter
had an extensive Middle Sicán occupation
(around 0.5 km2) with an adobe platform
mound complex built around a rectangu-
lar plaza, much like the Middle Sicán
capital of Sicán in Poma, some 22 km to
the northeast. Thus, Huaca Sialupe was
thought to have housed artisans who
were attached to the local elite to satisfy
both their mundane and special needs.
Four partially preserved, ovate struc-
tures were found close together at the
northern base of Mound I, along with
large quantities of ash, charcoal, and in-
tensely reddened adobe-brick fragments.
These structures, which we hypothesize
to be kilns, were built of adobe bricks set
in mud mortar and placed in pits about
125 cm ꢁ 60 cm and 30–35 cm deep, dug
into a sandy soil. One structure retained
two superimposed, carefully smoothed
interior clay linings. Poor preservation
makes it difficult to fully reconstruct their
original forms, but the preserved portions
and scattered structural remains suggest
that the kilns had in-curving walls that
created semi-closed firing chambers. The
consistent reddish coloring of these re-
Figure 2. Three blackware vessels accompanying a Middle Sicán commoner’s burial,
excavated in the east sector of Huaca Las Ventanas at the site of Sicán. Vessels shown
are approximately 15 cm in height and 13 cm in width. Photo by Izumi Shimada.
Prior to the 1999 excavation of the Huaca
Sialupe workshop, Middle Sicán blackware
samples from non-workshop contexts were
analyzed. Their chemical and mineral com-
position were determined through neutron
activation analysis (NAA), x-ray diffrac-
tion (XRD), and thin-section microscopy
(TSM). Firing conditions and temperatures
were established by Mössbauer spectros-
copy (MS).8–10 These studies showed that
the firing technology mostly involved a
strongly reducing atmosphere and tem-
peratures of about 700–800ꢀC. Some of the
specimens were reoxidized on the surface
and, occasionally, throughout. About one-
third of the sherds were only dried at tem-
peratures below 400ꢀC. The black surface
color was caused by soot penetration.
The discovery of a well-preserved ce-
ramic workshop at Huaca Sialupe pro-
vided an excellent opportunity to address
questions of details of the technology,
organization of production, and product
inventory.
north coast, and its sphere of influence
reached some 1000 km north and south of
Lambayeque.
Middle Sicán ceramic technology de-
veloped from a long tradition of over
2500 years of local pottery production.
Excavation in 1989 at the bottom of the
abandoned Poma Canal, about 25 km
northeast of Huaca Sialupe, had revealed
57 Cupisnique kilns (ca. 1000–500 B.C.).3,9
These kilns had a basic figure-eight or
keyhole shape in plane view and in-
curving side walls to create a semi-closed,
spherical firing chamber and firebox.
They measured approximately 40–70 cm
in width, 100–120 cm in length, and
35–45 cm in depth below the associated
floor. The chamber had a prominent chim-
ney at the far end and a capacity that
ranged from about 0.20 to 0.45 m3. Char-
coal found at the bottom of the chamber
indicates that the primary fuel was a local
hardwood, Prosopis pallida.
Replicative firing experiments were
conducted at Poma Canal (1990–1997) by
professional potters using local clay, a full-
scale replica kiln, and a 3,000-year-old
Cupisnique kiln. The experiments were
followed by archaeometric comparisons
of the fired replica vessels with Cupisnique
counterparts.3,9,10,12 Our studies showed
that these kilns were quite sophisticated,
functioning in a highly predictable man-
ner and attaining desired atmospheric con-
ditions and firing temperatures of around
Archaeological Background
Sicán is the name given to a prominent
regional culture that emerged in the
Lambayeque region of the Peruvian north
coast around A.D. 750–800 and persisted
until about A.D. 1400, when it was con-
quered by the intruding Chimú Kingdom.11
During the height of the Middle Sicán cul-
ture (A.D. 900–1100), its state-level polity
dominated a 400-km stretch of the Peruvian
26
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001

Peruvian Black Pottery Production and Metalworking: A Middle Sicán Craft Workshop
mains also suggests that the kilns were
used primarily for oxidizing firing of rela-
tively small vessels. A nearby oval bed of
ash mixed with carbonized twigs is be-
lieved to have been used for preheating
vessels to be placed in the kilns.
served cluster of four inverted urns was
found in Mound II. All of these urns seem
to share a number of basic features. They
measured 45–55 cm in diameter and
about 45 cm high (Figure 5). Their mouths
had been firmly set into the floor and their
bottoms removed. Their exteriors had
been covered with an insulating clay mix-
ture, and their top openings had been re-
inforced by sherds. They contained a
bed of charcoal inside and had an 8–9-cm
round draft hole cut into the body near
floor level, facing the prevalent wind
direction.
Our excavation recovered a variety of
metalworking remains from floors associ-
ated with the hypothesized furnaces and
from overlying fill. The remains included
small amorphous metal lumps (perhaps
miscast arsenical bronze ingots or blanks),
small chisels for sheet-metal cutting, sheet-
metal scraps, slag lumps, ingot-mold frag-
ments with arsenical bronze encrustation,
a stone hammer fragment, and a broken
tuyère (the ceramic tip of a blowtube).
Although the excavation data pointed
to a metalworking function for the urns,
we could not discount their possible use
as a ceramics kiln, nor describe the specific
metalworking process that may have been
in use.
them into groups by statistical analysis.9,10
NAA was also used in an effort to identify
suspected traces of metals in charcoal
samples taken from the inverted urns. MS
yielded information on iron-bearing com-
pounds in clays and ceramics; further,
physical and chemical processes that occur
during firing can be deduced from changes
in the Mössbauer spectra.9,10 Spectra meas-
ured for clay samples from Huaca Sialupe
and Poma fired in laboratory and field
model experiments were compared with
spectra measured for excavated ceramic
samples. In this manner, a reconstruction
of the range of firing conditions (e.g., at-
mosphere, temperature) of ceramics pro-
duction at Huaca Sialupe was achieved.
XRD and TSM (thin-section microscopy)
were used to supplement MS, since both
are useful in recording mineral transfor-
mations that occur during firing. MS is
applicable only to iron-bearing minerals
and oxides. XRD allows an assessment of
most other minerals, while iron oxides
tend to escape detection by XRD because
of their small particle size and low con-
centrations. Conversion-electron Mössbauer
spectroscopy (CEMS) and scanning elec-
tron microscopy (SEM) were employed to
study the black surface finish ubiquitous
in Middle Sicán ceramics.
Some 20 m southeast of these kilns,
three small oval- to teardrop-shaped kilns
were found spaced about 1 m apart on a
blackened earth floor (Figure 3), with the
larger firing chamber oriented downwind.
Their slightly concave, sloping (down-
ward toward the firing chamber), clay-
lined bottoms were 10–20 cm below floor
level and measured 90–110 cm long and
40–50 cm wide (Figure 4). They were thor-
oughly coated with charcoal bits and
powder, and one kiln had over 50 fine
blackware vessel fragments mixed with
compacted charcoal. Fallen lining frag-
ments indicate that the kilns originally
had in-curving side walls, creating a
domelike firing chamber that reached an
estimated 26 cm above the floor.
Immediately below the floor where
these three kilns were found, two nearly
identical inverted urn furnaces had been
placed about 2.5 m apart. Additional urns
appeared in the preceding floor and in the
adjacent excavation area. The best pre-
MS revealed that a substantial portion
of excavated blackware sherds were fired
typically around and above 900ꢀC under
reducing conditions, leading to the forma-
tion of gray Fe2ꢂ silicates. Mössbauer spec-
tra for two blackware sherds from Huaca
Sialupe and a third found at the Middle
Sicán elite tomb at Huaca Loro are shown
in Figure 6, together with their respective
Analytical Data
Archaeometry has been crucial in eluci-
dating the technology of Middle Sicán
craft production. Thus far, 208 samples
from Huaca Sialupe have been studied.
In our studies, NAA (neutron activation
analysis) was used to determine element
content, characterize the objects, and sort
Figure 3. Photograph of one of three
Middle Sicán kilns used for black
pottery firing. Photo by Izumi Shimada.
Figure 4. Plan and cross-sectional views of reconstructed Middle Sicán kiln used for black
pottery firing. Drawing by Izumi Shimada and Steve Mueller.
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001
27

Peruvian Black Pottery Production and Metalworking: A Middle Sicán Craft Workshop
dizing the charcoal in order to fit enough
material in the quartz vials used for NAA.
Five samples of ash from the charcoal
collected from Urn 19 contained about
200–400 ppb (parts per billion by weight of
ash) of gold, while charcoal collected from
Urn 5 yielded no trace of gold. Naturally
occurring gold concentrations in unconta-
minated soil are typically around 1–3 ppb,
values that were indeed found in bricks
and clays from different parts of the work-
shop. In addition, gold traces of 15–100 ppb
were observed in six blackware sherds
(Table I).
Behavioral and
Organizational Implications
Archeometry has played a critical role
in elucidating the nature of craft produc-
tion at Huaca Sialupe. While metallurgical
debris recovered from the excavation
suggested only arsenical bronze-working
(reported elsewhere), archaeometry pro-
vided not only a confirmation of this sus-
picion, but also additional evidence for
precious metalworking. A replicative field
experiment conducted in 2000 using a
full-sized inverted urn provided impor-
tant additional data. It was filled with
charcoal from local hardwood (Prosopis
pallida) up to the top of the draft hole.
Using only natural draft, the temperature
of the charcoal bed reached over 1100ꢀC,
as measured by a Ni/CrNi thermocouple.
The air exiting from the furnace top read-
ily surpassed 700ꢀC, more than adequate
for annealing, yet the furnace exterior,
with its thick mud insulation, remained
safe to touch at about 60ꢀC. These lines of
evidence together argue that the inverted
urns were efficient updraft furnaces used
perhaps for gold alloying and annealing
to make arsenical bronze and tumbaga
sheets. The presence of at least two sepa-
rate areas in Mounds I and II, each with at
least three regularly spaced furnaces, sug-
gests at least two distinct groups of a half
dozen or so metalworkers. Earlier excava-
tion of non-production sites, including
many tombs, have shown that arsenical
bronze objects were widely accessible to
the masses, but tumbaga and other precious-
metal items were restricted to the social
elite, such as those who presumably lived
at the nearby sites of Huaca Pared-Uriarte.
Well-fired, shiny blackware sherds were
common at the Huaca Sialupe workshop,
and archaeometry revealed the chemistry
behind this popular finish. The intriguing
metallic sheen depended on the degree of
surface polishing that, being rather labor-
intensive, was predominantly found on
high-status, decorated bottles and flasks.
For example, highly polished, black,
double-spout bottles were found only in
Figure 5. (a) Top and (b) side cross-sectional views of hypothesized metalworking furnace
made from an inverted urn. Drawing by Izumi Shimada and Steve Mueller.
XRD scans. The XRD scans of Sherds 1
and 2 do not exhibit any sheet silicates ex-
cept for mica, which proved stable up to
temperatures of 930–950ꢀC. The Mössbauer
spectra of the core and surface do not show
any significant differences, indicating that
the reducing atmosphere was maintained
throughout the firing and no reoxidation
of the surface layer took place at the end of
the firing. Even though the iron-bearing
compounds show that the firing condi-
tions were strongly reducing, the observed
black surface coloration is not caused by
magnetite formation but by graphite depo-
sition. Hexagonal graphite plates and layers
of graphite were observed by SEM on a
polished surface (Figure 7). The presence
of graphite accounts for the prominent
metallic sheen. Carbon is also predomi-
nant in energy-dispersive x-ray analyses
of the surface layer. The presence of mag-
netite on the surface as the cause for the
black color was independently excluded
by backscattering Mössbauer experiments
(Figure 8).
To resolve the question regarding the
original use(s) of the aforementioned in-
verted urns, 13 batches of charcoal from
different depths of the charcoal bed at the
bottom of Urns 5 and 19 were collected for
NAA. The intention was to look for any
traces of metals that might have spilled
or sputtered during metalworking. The
sample volume had to be reduced by oxi-
28
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001

Peruvian Black Pottery Production and Metalworking: A Middle Sicán Craft Workshop
Figure 8. (a) Backscattering Mössbauer
spectrum probing a depth of about
10 ꢃm of the shiny black surface of a
replica vessel. Nonmagnetic divalent
and trivalent iron is present in the
surface of the sherd, but no magnetite
can be detected. (b) A transmission
spectrum of magnetite is included for
comparison.
Figure 6. (a), (b) Room-temperature Mössbauer spectra of material from the cores (center
column) and the surface (right column) of two well-reduced sherds of Sialupe blackware.
The components with the large quadrupole splitting are dominant and characterize Fe2ꢂ
silicates. No difference between core and surface material is observed. (c) Mössbauer
spectra from the core and the surface of an underfired sherd from a shaft tomb in Huaca
Loro. Fe3ꢂ species that exhibit a small quadrupole splitting and a small isomer shift are
the main components in these spectra. The respective x-ray diffraction scans of the core
samples are shown in the left column. Only mica (which is stable up to 930ꢀC), feldspars,
and amphiboles are observed in (a) and (b), while the presence of the 14-Å minerals in
(c) supports the notion that the sherd was indeed underfired. For further explanation,
see Reference 9.
shaped kiln excavated at Huaca Sialupe,
30 burnished replica vessels, and using
local fuel, performed three reduction firings
that yielded a wide variety of finishes,
ranging from well-reduced, shiny black to
partially reduced, shiny gray.
Much the same variable quality was
found among Middle Sicán “black” ce-
ramics excavated or surface-collected from
other sites. In an earlier MS study,8 many
of the “black” and “gray” ceramic vessels
that accompanied 18 women, buried
within a gigantic Middle Sicán elite shaft
tomb in Poma about 22 km northeast of
Sialupe, were found to have been only
heated to 400ꢀC or less, the black col-
oration being due to varying degrees of
soot deposition. A Mössbauer backscatter-
ing spectrum of a replica sherd is shown
in Figure 8a. These vessels were possibly
made in haste to satisfy immediate funer-
ary needs. Thus, factors affecting both the
consumers and the producers need to be
considered in order to understand why
and how certain craft products were made
the way they were. Just as in our society
today, these factors include the potential
and limitations of available raw materials,
of the technology, and the producers (e.g.,
their skill level), as well as the social or
symbolic values of the products and expec-
tations and preferences of the consumers.
Archaeometric data need to be contextual-
Figure 7. Scanning electron micrographs showing the shiny surface of a sherd from a
replica vessel. The hexagonal graphite plate in (a) is 3000 unit cells wide; the surface layer
in (b) is 10–20 ꢃm thick. Ratios of C/(C ꢂ O) and Al/(Al ꢂ Si), as observed by electron-
dispersive x-ray analyses in (b), are as follows: Spot A: C/(C ꢂ O) ꢀ 0.93, no Al, traces of
Si, and Fe were observed in this weathered surface layer. Spot B: C/(C ꢂ O) ꢀ 0.94, no Al,
traces of Si. Spot C: C/(C ꢂ O) ꢀ 0.1, Al/(Al ꢂ Si) ꢀ 0.3.
four elite tombs out of over 50 Middle
Sicán tombs of varied social status exca-
vated outside of Huaca Sialupe.
“wasters” (pottery discarded due to some
defect). In this regard, results of our
replicative ceramic firing experiments in
2000 and the analysis of ceramics from
non-production sites provide important
insights. A professional potter, working
with a full-scale replica of a teardrop-
The pottery recovered at the Huaca
Sialupe workshop, however, may not ac-
curately reflect the range and quality of
production, as they were predominantly
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001
29

Peruvian Black Pottery Production and Metalworking: A Middle Sicán Craft Workshop
(Physik-Department E15, Technische Uni-
Table I: Concentrations of Au Determined by Neutron Activation Analysis in
Blackware Sherds and Charcoal Samples from a Metalworking Furnace
Excavated at the Huaca Sialupe Workshop.
versität München), David Goldstein, Go
Matsumoto, and Sarah Taylor (Department
of Anthropology, Southern Illinois Uni-
versity—Carbondale), and Luis Carceres
and Cristina Rospigliosi (Archaeology
Program, Catholic University of Peru,
Lima). The participation of potters Victor
Chang and José Sosa in our field firing ex-
periments was invaluable.
Au
Au in Ash of Charcoal
(ppb)
Sherd Number
(ppb)*
Charcoal Batch Number
39/112
39/119
39/94
18
50
50
23
23
15
39/87
237
92
39/123
39/124
39/125
39/126
39/127
39/128
39/129
315
377
292
215
159
161
39/96
39/98a
References
1. I. Shimada, in Andean Ecology and Civiliza-
tion, edited by S. Masuda, I. Shimada, and C.
Morris (University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1985)
p. 357.
39/103
2. I. Shimada, in In Quest of Mineral Wealth: Abo-
riginal and Colonial Mining and Metallurgy in
Spanish America, edited by A. Craig and R. West
(Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1994)
p. 37.
*The natural level of Au in Sialupe clay is 1–3 ppb.
a Sherd 1 in Figure 6.
3. I. Shimada, V. Chang, D. Killick, H. Neff,
M. Glascock, U. Wagner, and R. Gebhard, in
Andean Ceramics: Technology, Organization and
Approaches, edited by I. Shimada (MASCA, The
University Museum, Philadelphia, 1998) p. 23.
4. I. Shimada and J.A. Griffin, Sci. Am. 270
(4) (1994) p. 60.
5. I. Shimada and J.F. Merkel, Sci. Am. 265
(1) (1991) p. 80.
6. K.M. Cleland and I. Shimada, Andean Past 3
(1992) p. 193.
7. P.J. Lyon, in Kodai Andes Bijutsu, edited by
S. Masuda and I. Shimada (Iwanami, Tokyo,
1991) p. 32.
8. T. Hutzelmann, “Mössbaueruntersuchungen
an archäologischer Keramik aus Batán Grande,”
MS thesis, Technische Universität München,
1998.
9. U. Wagner, R. Gebhard, E. Murad, J. Riederer,
I. Shimada, and F. Wagner, in Andean Ceramics:
Technology, Organization and Approaches, edited
by I. Shimada (MASCA, The University Mu-
seum, Philadelphia, 1998) p. 173.
10. U. Wagner, R. Gebhard, G. Grosse, T.
Hutzelmann, E. Murad, E. Riederer, I. Shimada,
and F.E. Wagner, Hyperfine Interact. 117 (1998)
p. 323.
11. I. Shimada, in The Inca World: The Develop-
ment of Pre-Columbian Peru, A.D. 1000–1534, ed-
ited by L. Laurencich Minelli (University of
Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2000) p. 49.
12. U. Wagner, R. Gebhard, W. Häuser, T.
Hutzelmann, J. Riederer, I. Shimada, and F.E.
Wagner, Hyperfine Interact. 122 (1999) p. 163.
13. I. Shimada, J. Field Archaeol. 8 (1981) p. 405.
14. I. Shimada, in Moche: Art and Political Repre-
sentation in Ancient Peru, edited by J. Pillsbury
(The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)
in press.
ized in order to establish their behavioral
and cultural significance. However, these
lines of evidence taken together suggest
that while Sialupe potters were capable of
producing well-fired, true blackware, they
did not consistently obtain the desired finish.
The clusters of similar kilns, together
with the observed stylistic and technical
variation in molds and matrices, suggest
that ceramic production at Huaca Sialupe
was based not on economic efficiency,
mass production, or complementary task
differentiation, but rather on the largely
redundant and parallel efforts of semi-
autonomous, “modular” groups of pot-
ters. This organization is akin to that seen
in Sicán arsenical bronze production5 and,
earlier, in urban Moche craft production.14
The coexistence of metalworking and
pottery making in the same workshop
brings up an important point regarding
our current thinking on and approaches to
ancient technology and craft production.
Our perceptions of both are overly influ-
enced by medium-specific analytical dis-
tinctions, and we tend to project these
preconceptions onto the practices of past
cultures without examining their validity.
Archaeologists and others think of a
workshop in terms of a single, specific
craft or medium, be it ceramics, weaving,
or metalworking, without considering po-
tential interaction among concurrent and
nearby crafts. Metalworking, for example,
relied on a knowledge of ceramics and
on ceramic tools such as ingot molds, cru-
cibles, and tuyères, as well as furnaces. In
addition, metalworkers and potters may
have coordinated the procurement of fuel
or negotiated for advantageous appor-
tionment of high-quality fuels. In other
words, more attention needs to be paid
to multicraft organization and inter-craft
interaction in the investigation of work-
shop sites such as Huaca Sialupe.14–16
Conclusion
This article demonstrates the critical
role played by archaeometry in the holis-
tic study of ancient technology and craft
production. The active participation of
archaeometrists and pertinent craft spe-
cialists in the field is important not only
for the examination of archaeological re-
mains in their proper contexts, but also
for the selection of specific samples and
analytical techniques and for subsequent
experimental testing and refinement of
interpretive models. This holistic approach
has yielded an in-depth technological and
organizational understanding of 1000-
year-old Middle Sicán black pottery pro-
duction that in many ways diverges from
currently popular views of ancient craft
production.
Acknowledgments
Grants from the National Geographic
Society, the Heinz Family Foundation,
and the German Research Council are
gratefully acknowledged. The authors
are indebted to numerous colleagues
who participated in the studies: Jürgen
Froh (scanning electron micrography,
Abteilung Elektronenmikroskopie, Tech-
nische Chemie I, Technische Universität
München), Rupert Gebhard (x-ray radiog-
raphy, Prähistorische Staatssammlung
München), Jo Ann Griffin (goldsmith,
Dallas), Werner Häusler (XRD diffractome-
try, Physik-Department E15, Technische
Universität München), Michael Jakob
15. I. Shimada, Boletín del Museo de Oro 41
(1998) p. 27.
16. P.E. McGovern, in Cross-Craft and Cross-
Cultural Interactions in Ceramics, edited by P.E.
McGovern (American Ceramic Society, Wester-
ville, OH, 1989) p. 1.
ꢀ
Materials Research Society online catalog for Proceedings is available at
www.mrs.org/publications/
www.mrs.org/publications/bulletin
30
MRS BULLETIN/JANUARY 2001