Glazing Over Differences: Picuris Pueblo and Rio Grande Glaze Ware

Abstract

Located in the northeastern corner of the Pueblo world, Picuris Pueblo exists on the fringe not only geographically but also archaeologically. In many ways, Picuris culture is unique, combining aspects of both Pueblo and Plains life and is one of only two Northern Tiwa-speaking communities. Once one of the largest settlements in the area, Picuris contains numerous opportunities for what is now New Mexico's smallest pueblo to celebrate and promote their archaeological heritage. However, much of the northern Rio Grande remains under studied and new research can highlight the unique cultures of this region. While many of the ground-breaking studies in the early days of Southwestern archaeology took place in this region, it has not received as much attention in more recent times. Currently, Alfred Kidder's century-old work on Pecos Pueblo is the primary source of information for the area, and the ceramic typology it includes is applied across the region. This research attempts to apply the Pecos typology to a small collection of 40 Rio Grande Glaze Ware rims collected from Picuris and notes differences and incongruities that distinguish the two. This research finds that the ceramic typologies as they stand are not fully transferable across the diverse groups of the northern Rio Grande region, even when there are not vast distances separating them. In discovering where the current system falls short, this paper opens the door for further research into tailoring the typology to suit sites across the area. Once a baseline is established for differences at Picuris, higher level analysis of these differences can be carried out.