| THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE (p 2)
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| An early
style plain ware "seed" jar. »Enlarge |
Plain reddish-brown or gray earthenware vessels with smoothed and
lightly polished surfaces were shaped into small jars with rounded
bodies and simple openings (sometimes called “seed jars”).
The next most common forms were bowls and shallow plates.
In southern Arizona, archaeologists refer to this period as the
Early Ceramic Period. A number of other changes also occurred in
the technology and lifestyles of these populations. New varieties
of corn were introduced, as were new styles of grinding stones to
reduce corn to flour more effectively. The latter included the trough
metate and rectangular mano.
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| Trough metate and a rectangular mano. »Enlarge |
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Whole Glycymeris shells and examples of bracelets
made from them. »Enlarge |
There was also a marked shift in shell ornament styles and bracelets
made from Glycymeris, a large bivalve found in the Gulf of California,
became increasingly popular at this time.
It did not take long for these people to apply decoration to their
pottery. Initial evidence suggests that the earliest experiments
involved incising simple designs into the soft clay surfaces prior
to firing. Sometime around A.D. 400, they began to apply a coating
of fine clay colored with red ochre to the exterior surfaces of
vessels. Sometimes these coatings, known as “slips,”
also included crushed mica, which produced a glittery surface. Painted
designs using ground red ochre soon followed, with broad lined,
simple geometric motifs that soon developed into increasingly complex
fine lined designs.
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