The Same Way of Doing Pottery. San Francisco Ceramic Fabrics from Tumbaya (Quebrada de Humahuaca) and San Pedro (San Francisco River Basin)

Abstract

The San Francisco pottery tradition is one of the most important and widely distributed cultural expressions of the Formative Period in northwestern Argentina. Its chronology goes from the eighth century BC to the fifth century AD approximately. This chapter contributes to the characterization of this pottery tradition by reviewing the information and interpretations reached, to date, and providing new evidence from two sectors of northwestern Argentina: the San Francisco River Basin and the central south sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca (Jujuy Province). Pottery materials recovered from these areas were analyzed through the application of petrographic techniques and statistical analysis of quantitative variables. The main goal was to answer two questions. First, is the identity of San Francisco, reflected in the forms and iconography of their vessels, also expressed in their pastes as a distinct manufacturing tradition? Second, can the technical and textural characteristics of these pastes set trends that reflect a local production of San Francisco vessels in the central south sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca? This study corroborate the existence of the four groups of pastes previously defined, and proposes that vessels of the same ceramic type have different types of fabrics. The same type of fabrics are present both in the San Francisco Basin sites as well as in the sites in the south central sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca, therefore we cannot state that there are differences in the manufacturing patterns from these two areas. Nevertheless, a slight tendency towards pastes with a common presence of slate and phyllites was registered in the sites of south central Quebrada de Humahuaca. Finally, the addition of grog, present in most of the San Francisco pastes, is undoubtedly the hallmark of this pottery tradition. This trait is shared by other cultural traditions from the eastern slopes of the Andes and it is also an idiosyncratic feature of the pottery assemblages of the Chaco area, establishing a notable difference with other pottery traditions from the Formative period of northwestern Argentina.