Characterization of pottery from Cerro de Las Ventanas, Zacatecas, Mexico

Abstract

With the aim of classifying prehispanic pottery from Cerro de Las Ventanas site, Juchipila, Zacatecas, Mexico, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used to analyze ceramic samples at the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center. Thirty-two chemical elements were measured: Al, As, Ba, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Dy, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Nd, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Sr, Ta, Tb, Ti, Th, U, V, Yb, Zn, and Zr. Two multivariate statistical methods, cluster analysis and principal component analysis, were performed on the dataset to examine similarities between samples and to establish compositional groups. The statistical analyses of the dataset suggest that the pottery samples form a unique chemically homogeneous group, with the exception of one pottery sample. The compositional data were compared to an existing Mesoamerican ceramic database. It was found that the newly generated data fit best with data from a previous chemical analysis of pottery from the Malpaso Valley. However, despite the apparent similarity, pottery samples from the site of Cerro de Las Ventanas represent a new and unique chemical fingerprint in the region.