CHAPTER 8
SOIL SOURCES FOR CERAMIC PRODUCTION IN THE ANDES
Isabelle C. Druc
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Andean potters, past and present, have used local materials to produce their ceramics Petrographic and
chemical analyses of raw materials and ceramics show the exploitation of a variety of rock and soil
sources, up to 12 km away from the place of production. One to three and sometimes four soils can be
mixed after grinding and sieving the material to eliminate the coarser fractions. The pots are hand-built
and fired on the ground. Soil and paste analyses by petrography and physico-chemical methods allow to
explore the variability of the resources, while ethnoarchaeology help assess the geographical extension
and use of potting resources Ethnographic examples also show that several villages exploit the same
resources and exchange materials. This pattern obliges to reconsider the notion of production area.
The present study was motivated by a need to improve our
understanding of local materials and resources available to
potters near the ancient ceremonial center of Chavn de
Huntar (ca 900-200 BC), in the upper Andean valley of the
Mosna river, east of the White Cordillera. The closest potting
villages in the region are Yacya, Mallas and Acopalca, above
the little town of Huari 44km north of Chavn. West of the
White Cordillera is the Santa upper valley, called the
Callejn de Huaylas, where much ceramic is produced (see
Figure 1). Other potters were also visited near Chacas and
San Luis. All these villages are located in the mountainous
regions of the Ancash Department.
The potters in several of these villages temper their paste
with shashal, a slate-like material. Elsewhere they mix
different clayey soils. Manufacture is also different according
to the region. In the highlands and on the coast, the materials
used for ceramic production are of mineral origin, extracted
from local resources. In the tropical forest of Peru, organic
material or grog is added to the clay base. Prehistoric and
contemporary Andean potters have exploited and still adapt
local materials, by modifying their plasticity or
granulometry, to produce their ceramics. Whatever the place,
local geology and the environment determine what is
available. Petrographic and chemical analyses of raw
materials and ceramics (ancient and modern) show the use of
a variety of soil sources by highland potters. Volcanic
fragments, intrusive material, crushed diorite, ground slate,
coarse clay, shale-rich soils are examples of the materials
used. The types of materials also vary through time, along
with cultural and technological changes of production. How
was it done in the past? How large was the resource area?
What is the regional variability of the raw material used? Soil
survey and paste analysis yield some answers to these
questions, but ethnographic examples show the need to
consider complex production scenarios.
A diachronic perspective of ceramic production in the north
central highlands will first be presented. This will allow us to
envision the changes observed in soil sources and ceramic
pastes in the region of study. We will then focus on
ethnoarchaeological data about materials and soil sources for
ceramic production around Huari, Ancash. The ethnographic
context helps understand the complexity of ceramic studies
Figure 2. Diachronic perspective of soil sources and ceramic production in the north-central Andes.
Figure 3. Crushed shashal (right, next to the wall) and grinding stone (back), Yacya, Ancash.
Highland
villages
LLAMELLIN
Acopalca
HUARI
shashal
raku
Highland
mines
Yacya
shashal
Highland
villages
Mallas
shashal
Highland
mines
Pots
Materials
Figure 4. Material acquisition pattern and ceramic distribution around Huari, Ancash.
In terms of source variation, as seen from petrographic and
carbon analysis, the shashal mines above Acopalca have
similar compositions (the slate is very similar from one mine
to the other), while the raku composition shows more
variability. The raku is an argillaceous soil extracted from
different fields of the community of Yacya, with a variable
distribution and granulometry of quartz, feldspar, quartzite,
clastic and terrigenous constituents.
PETROGRAPHIC
ANALYSIS
POTTERY PRODUCTION
OF
MODERN
Only one group was constituted from the ceramics from the
region of Chacas-San Luis (Group 3). In this petrogroup, the
slate fragments are less opaque, of lower metamorphism than
the slate fragments from the Huari region. They have the
appearance of shale. Intragroup variability is very small. All
thin sections from Chinlla and Ichikchinlla, collected from
two different potters, are very similar in composition, texture,
granulometry and color, except for S13, which has a darker
paste.
Given that all the wares in these two regions are slatetempered, how do they classify according to the chemical
characterization of the slate? Carbon analysis of the slate
fragments from different mines was conducted to seek
information on the regional variation of slate composition.
SEM analysis of slate fragments in ceramics was also
conducted, as well as bulk analysis of powder samples of
slate-tempered ceramics.
CARBON ANALYSIS OF SLATE SAMPLES
Six samples of raw slate fragments from Yacya, Acopalca,
and Chinlla near San Luis-Chacas, were submitted to carbon
analysis to test regional tendencies in carbon content. Chang
Soobun of the Geology Department at Yale ran the analysis
on a carbon detector LECO CR12. Steven Petsch and
Isabelle Druc reduced the samples to powder using a
mechanical grinder. Carbon determination was based upon
burning of the sample, which produced CO2, to be detected
by infrared spectrometry. The calibration was done in
reference to standards of calcium carbonate powder CaCO3
12.00 wgt % from Mallkinckrodt Chemical Works in Saint
Louis. The same standard was measured three times, at the
beginning, middle and end of the analysis to control for drift
and to measure the analytical error. In the present case, the
error ranged between 0.7 to 0.8 %.
The six samples were run two times, ca 100-150 mg powder
at a time. The powder was poured in an alumina container
and inserted into the burning chamber for 2 to 3 minutes or
until combustion of carbon present in the sample was
complete. The accumulated CO2 was measured, divided by
sample weight, and multiplied by an internal coefficient
determined by the calibration program. The analysis yielded
the amount of total carbon measured. The total carbon
measured per sample (two runs each) is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Total carbon measured in raw slate samples from Huari-San Luis region
provenance
Acopalca,
Cro Matadero
weight
160 mg
133 mg
total carbon
57.62 %
55.35 %
Mean
56.49 %
C (real)
55.52 %
comment
slow burning
slate 8
slate 8/2
Yacya,
Cro Ventanilla
117 mg
123 mg
53.69 %
53.69 %
53.69 %
52.76 %
Id.
slate 66
slate 66/2
Yacya,
mine
113 mg
145 mg
76.32 %
76.75 %
76.54 %
75.22 %
Id. coal?
slate 14
slate 14/2
Ichicchinlla,
Cro Chinlla
120 mg
123 mg
1.63 %
1.48 %
1.56 %
1.53 %
fast burning,
black shale?
slate 17
slate 17/2
Chinlla,
Cro Chinlla
129 mg
121 mg
1.62 %
1.99 %
1.81 %
1.77 %
Id.
slate 18
slate 18/2
Chinlla,
grounded
119 mg
176 mg
1.001 %
1.18 %
1.09 %
1.07 %
Id.
std
standard
CaCO3
319 mg
332 mg
325 mg
268 mg
307 mg
12.24 %
12.09 %
12.20 %
12.26 %
12.24 %
beginning
of analysis
12.21 %
end
The real content of carbon is calculated as follows: (1) C % (real) = C % (measured) x standard fixed/standard measured
The fixed content of carbon in the standard is 12.0 %. The mean standard measured is 12.21 %.
Carbon can be present in the sample as different compounds
or components such as graphite, calcium carbonate, organic
or inorganic (de-gazed). To distinguish if it is organic carbon
or graphite that is present in the sample, thermogravimetric
methods are useful, as graphite is more robust in crystallinity
than carbonate. If two separate peaks appear, this indicates
the presence of two different types of material, such as
organic carbon and carbonate carbon. The compounds are all
organic if the two peaks immediately follow each other
(Soobun, personal communication, 4/1998). Graphite is
composed of 100 % carbon, anthracite (coal) 70- 90 %,
ignite, ca 60 %, while black shale is very low in carbon.
The amount of carbon identifies the materials as coal for
slate sample #66 from a mine above Yacya, ignite for
samples #2 from Yacya and #8 from Acopalca, both
extracted from mines above Acopalca, and black shale for
samples #14, #17, and #18, from the Chacas-San Luis region
(Figure 8).
All these materials are called shashal, or slate temper, but a
more exact denomination would be coal temper and shale
temper. The graphite-tempered ceramics from Taric and
Chavn, reported by Ponte Rosalina and John Rick, could
thus respond to the same denomination, while being different
in composition from the shashal from Huari. The amount of
carbon also differs according to the resource area and,
probably, the vein. The latter should, however, be verified
with more samples to assess the internal variability of each
source. Nevertheless, we can conclude that striking
differences exist between the shashal temper used in the
Huari region by the potters of Acopalca and Yacya and the
shashal from San-Luis Chacas used by the potters of Chinlla.