Potter Gestures and Work Direction in Southwest Ceramics with Exposed Coiling and Corrugation

Corrugated vessels are ubiquitous throughout the US Southwest, and yet their research potential is often overlooked. This paper quantifies how much uniformity or variability goes into the process of manufacturing these objects. The paper focuses on the fundamental, early-stage technological choice of coiling direction. Does coiling direction determine other attributes visible on ceramic vessel bodies, specifically indentation angle? To answer this question, I closely examine whole and majority-intact ceramic vessels. The sample comprises 255 vessels with exposed coiling or corrugation. The goals of the study are twofold: 1) to resolve whether indentation angles on corrugated sherds are a good proxy for coiling direction, and 2) to define the distributional patterns of coiling direction across the Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon regions of the Southwest. Results indicate 1) indentation angle is associated with coiling direction, but perhaps not closely enough to make indentation angle a wholly reliable proxy for coiling direction; and 2) coiling direction is nearly uniformly counterclockwise with clinal variation at the southern and northern bounds of the US Southwest and a temporal trend toward clockwise coiling.