Manufacturing technique analysis of late Prehispanic pottery from Northwest of Argentina (13th - 17th century A.D.): A case-study of the Sanagasta/Angualasto style from the Tambería de Guandacol site (La Rioja Province)

Abstract

This article presents the study and results of pottery production and manufacturing techniques at the Tambería de Guandacol site, Department of Felipe Varela, Province of La Rioja (Argentina). The ceramic assemblage is manufactured in the Sanagasta/Angualasto style. This style is associated mainly with the Late prehispanic period in the Argentine Northwest (13th to 17th century A.D.). The assemblage is fragmentary. Nevertheless, employing ceramic petrography and trace analysis we address the operational chain and the organization of pottery production of the groups that inhabited the valley during this period. We also discuss the advances and limitations of this type of study on fragmentary records. The results show that there is uniform selection of primary and secondary techniques in the manufacture of ceramic vessels, while there is a degree of irregularity in the application method. In addition, there are technological similarities with coeval ceramics from the area. In turn, this allows us to propose the existence of a manufacturing process generated by a given community group, using different agents, and framed within a technological tradition founded on reiterated teaching/learning practices, linked strongly to social and cultural ties.