Following my participation in an extensive illustration project in 2001 of precontact decorated ceramics from the Hohokam site of Snaketown that were curated at the Arizona State Museum, I wrote an article published by AAP in 2014 called Representation and Structure Conflict in the Digital Age: Reassessing Archaeological Illustration and the Use of Cubist Techniques in Depicting Images of the Past.  The article details illustration techniques that are used to render complete ceramic designs on vessels in 2-Dimensions. The 2-Dimensional illustration allows the viewer to see the entirety of the painted design in one image, free of the distortions and occlusions created by the vessel form when it is viewed from a single perspective point (like the image captured in a photograph).

Twenty-three years later, I find myself again illustrating an assemblage of Hohokam decorated ceramics, this time from the site of AZ T:12:1 (ASM), historically named as La Ciudad, situated in the Phoenix Basin. The collection consists  primarily of funerary objects. The ceramics are similar to those in the Preclassic Snaketown collection (many, in fact, were probably manufactured by those same potters), but also include Classic period decorated ware and various polychromes. The illustration process for this assemblage requires different approaches and is much more challenging.

The excavations at AZ T:12:1 (ASM) require that certain considerations and protocol for the treatment of funerary items be followed by the illustrator. These include among other things restrictions on photography and the use of tape to secure refitted sherds.

The majority of the decorated ceramic pots I am illustrating from AZ T:12:1 (ASM) are broken and often incomplete, and designs are faded and discernible only in isolated patches across the surface of the jar or bowl.

In most cases, I never get to see the entirety of the vessel or the design in real life, I am only dealing with fragments. The vessel and the design are not evident to me at the beginning of the illustrative process, but need to be figured out over time through re-fitting, establishing dimensions and outlines of the vessel, tracing discernible portions of the design, and learning to replicate design layouts of Hohokam iconography from scratch. All of this information is then combined to re-construct the vessel and design illustratively. The vessel shape and painted design re-emerge in their complete forms only in the finished illustration.

With the aid of planview drawings and field notes, the illustrative process allows assemblages of ceramic vessels from single features to be re-united and viewed as they were in situ.

This blog is shared with the permission of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Tribal Historic Preservation Office and the City of Phoenix Archaeology Office.

Figure 1: Beginning stages of illustration of a Classic Period decorated jar using only a few re-fitted sherds.

Figure 2: Early stage of illustration depicting a design of repeating rectilinear scrolls traced from the jar surface and then re-organized within the circular footprint of the jar. Imagine a photograph of the same vessel (and its limitations): the vessel form distorts and hides portions of the design no matter what angle it is photographed from.

Figure 3: A completed illustration of an incomplete and broken jar.

Figure 4: For many of the illustrations, an extrapolated version of the design must first be figured out and then the extant sherds fit into their proper positions within it.

Figure 5: Illustration work is not simply tracing or mimicking a photograph. The illustrator needs to become knowledgeable about the artifact and convey that knowledge to the viewer. During the project at AZ T:12:1  I have learned how to replicate even the most complex Hohokam designs using a series of steps beginning with what I call ORGANIZING FORMS (Carlson, in press).

Figure 6: Re-uniting urns and their capping bowls as they were in situ.

Figure 7: More re-united urns and their capping bowls.

Read the associated research article here: Representation and Structure Conflict in the Digital Age by Eric S. Carlson