Theses and Dissertations Collection

Measuring rim sherds and identifying the size of vessels is one method used to identify feasting. Larger than normal vessels may indicate a scale of food preparation for groups of people larger than the normal household. Located in the American Southwest Chaco Canyon was a central place for the Ancestral Puebloans, and reached apex between A.D. 1000-1130/1150. Chacoan Great Houses are thought to be used as gathering places for local communities and to be the locus of ritual and feasting activities. If true, great house ceramic assemblages should differ from those of smaller household residences, especially in terms of size. This thesis reports vessel size data, both by ware type and temporally, from the smaller residences and great houses in the southern Cibolan communities of Cox Ranch Pueblo, Cerro Pomo and Largo Gap to assess ceramic evidence for feasting. The primary result being that there is little evidence of feasting in the data but there are indications of status differences at the great houses.