Decorated ceramic distributions and ideological developments in the northern and central Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

Three kinds of decorated ceramics were prominent during the Pueblo IV period in the Rio Grande valley: jemez Black-on-white, Biscuit ware, and Rio Grande Glaze ware. Archaeologists have long been aware that the spatial distributions of these ceramics seem to form distinct boundaries. This spatial patterning of decorated pottery must reflect the existence of some form of meaningful social boundaries in prehistory, The nature of these boundaries, however, is unknown. In this chapter we examine published descriptions of Pueblo IV decorated ceramics, and undertake a limited design analysis of whole vessels from museum collections. Following Crown (1994), we propose an explanation linking these decorated ceramic boundaries to differences in ideological systems in the Pueblo IV Rio Grande, Aspects of vessel decoration, in particular iconic representations and distinctive color combinations, are argued to symbolically convey messages concerning participation in differing belief systems. Strong supporting evidence for our thesis is found in the geographic distribution of rock art styles in the Rio Grande valley. Decorated ceramic boundaries coincide with the distribution of different rock art styles, suggesting that these material trait boundaries represent meaningful ideological distinctions in prehistory.