Animas-La Plata Project Volume XIV: Ceramic Studies

Between 2002 and 2005, SWCA Environmental Consultants excaved 73 prehistoric archaeological sites in Ridges Basin and on Blue Mesa near Durango, Colorado. This volume reports the analysis of ceramic artifacts recoverd during these excavations, which yielded almost 100,000 potsherds and more than 200 whole or reconstructible vessels. These ceramics, cumulatively weighing nearly a ton, were recovered from 66 of the sites, nearly all of which were associated with the extensive early Pueblo I occupation in the late AD 700s and early AD 800s. Plain gray were composes approximately 85 percent of the assemblage. Another 11 percent of the assemblage consists of white ware sherds. The remaining Pueblo I ceramics are red ware and small quantities of brown ware and mud ware.