Kevin J. Vaughn and Hector Neff

2004 Tracing the Clay Source of Nasca Polychrome Pottery: Results
from a Preliminary Raw Material Survey. Journal of Archaeological
Science 31(11):1577-1586.

Abstract

This paper describes the results of the first season of a survey in which
clays suitable for the production of Nasca polychrome pottery were collected
in an effort to (1) determine the geological variability of clay sources in the
Nasca region; and (2) match clays compositionally to paste groups from
previous provenance analyses. Clays were collected, processed, fired, and
analyzed using neutron activation. The results demonstrate that clays in the
region were compositionally heterogeneous, and that the clay source for the
majority of Nasca polychrome pottery sampled thus far can be traced to
lower valleys in the region near the ancient ceremonial center Cahuachi.
The results have implications for understanding the nature of polychrome
pottery production in the Nasca region, and suggest centralized production
near the ceremonial center of the majority of painted ceramics consumed in
the Southern Nasca Region.