Timothy James Scarlett

Pottery in the Mormon Economy: An Historical, Archaeological, and Archaeometric Study

Pottery production was important to Latter-day Saint communities and distinguished these towns from their non-Mormon neighbors. The potters and workers left scant records that reveal how their wares fit into Utah’s theocratically organized economy. Potters and potteries of 19th-century Utah and the Mormon Domain were part of an archaeological survey conducted between 1999 and 2000. The research project yielded examples of kiln wasters that could be subjected to instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The results demonstrate the utility of integrating primary records and archaeometric tools in the study of historical era economic processes. Data also indicate the applicability of the approach for potteries in close geographic proximity and to determine patterns of variation within site assemblages. The authors propose an anthropological research program to explore the economics of religion in Mormon Utah, combining the analytical power of archaeometry with the contextualized questioning possible in historical archaeology.

Constructing new knowledge in industrial archaeology

Field schools in industrial archaeology (IA) are unusual within academic archaeology, a fact that reflects the unusual relationship between IA and other types of archaeology in the landscape of academic bureaucracies. In this essay, we offer some personal observations on how the field school experience contributes to building new knowledge in this field. Some of our concerns are unique to teaching IA, or if not unique, at least more particular for collaborations surrounding Industrial Heritage.

What if the Local is Exotic and the Imported Mundane

No archaeologist in western North America is shocked to discover a fragment of White Improved Earthenware. Locally manufactured ceramics, however, are rare and poorly understood. Archaeometric and historical analyses reveal the true complexity of ceramic exchanges in Utah, where pottery and ceramics served key roles in the performance of social and religious identity. This chapter reviews the progress of the Utah Pottery Project, established in 1999 to map the colonization of immigrant potters into the Mormon Domain. Crocks, pots, and jars represent connections between people in space and through time, some readily mapped while the complexity of others are difficult to reduce in a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis. Utah Pottery Project scholars work toward an integrative approach centered upon exchange where the local is exotic and the foreign is mundane.