Comparative Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh
URL: http://www.cadb.pitt.edu
Email: cadb@pitt.edu

Teotihuacan Sun Pyramid Cave Dataset
Rebecca Sload

TE 28 Ceramic Inventory

The files TE28CERAMIC.TXT and TE28CERAMIC.XLSX provide vessel shape, weight, and phase information for every ceramic artifact recovered during excavations at TE 28. TE28CERAMIC.TXT is a comma delimited ASCII text file; TE28CERAMIC.XLSX contains the same data in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Each line in the ASCII file represents one ceramic artifact. There are 273 lines, each with 14 variables separated by commas. The variables are listed in the following order:

1 Disturbed or Undisturbed context
2 Catalog ID. An alphanumeric code to identify each ceramic sherd recovered. It is comprised of the Area letter, followed by the Pit (North, South, East or West), followed by the number of either the "Small Find" or "Bag". During excavation virtually all material that had an origin outside the cave was placed into paper bags and logged as either Small Finds (SF) or Bags.
3 Photo number for image of the sherd. Please refer to the "Artifact Photographs" section of this dataset to view images of each artifact recovered using the Catalog ID and Photo Number (variables 2 and 3).
4 Drawing available (Y=yes)
5 Additional context information
6 Weight (g)
7 Total number of Tzacualli-Miccaotli (Tzac-Micc) sherds within Catalog ID.
8 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase olla (1=yes)
9 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase bowl (1=yes)
10 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase jar (1=yes)
11 Tzac-Micc phase sherd vessel shape (if not olla, bowl, or jar)
12 Tlam phase sherd vessel shape
13 Non-phaseable sherd vessel shape
14 Additional comments (mostly regarding reanalysis)

The first line of the ASCII text file, for example, looks like this:

disturbed,A-N-Bag2,1,,"Layer 2b, west half of looter's pit",2.2,1,1,,,,,,

This means that the sherd came from a disturbed context (ID "A-N-Bag2", meaning Area A, North pit, Bag 2). In conjunction with the photo number provided, the context ID makes it possible to find an image fo this sherd in the "Artifacts Photography" section of this dataset. There is no drawing of this sherd. Additional, more detailed context is provided by "Layer 2b, west half of looter's pit" (whose location can be found on the Interactive Map section of this dataset in the Area A pit profiles). The sherd weights 2.2 grams. This Context ID produced a total of 1 Tzacualli-Miccaotli (Tzac-Micc) sherd, and its shape is an olla. No additonal comments are provided.

The last, or 273rd line of the ASCII text file is:

Undisturbed,D-Bag6,,,Layer 3b fire pit(?) - Beta 220764,missing,,,,,,,missing,"Both the field notes and the Bag Log indicate that sherds were found in Layer 3b, but they were missing from the Lab in 2006. These are the only sherds unaccounted for in TE 28"

This means that the sherd came from an undisturbed context (ID "D-Bag6:, meaning Area D, Bag 6). There is no photo or drawing provided for this sherd. Additional, more detailed context is provided by "Layer 3b fire pit(?) - Beta 220764" which means that the sherd was found in Layer 3b, a possible fire pit that has associated C14 date Beta 220764. (The location of the Layer can be found on the Interactive Map section of this dataset in the Area D pit profiles). Weight, phase, and shape are unavailable because the Comments column notes: Although both the field notes and the Bag Log indicate that sherds were found in Layer 3b, the sherds were missing from the Lab in 2006. These are the only sherds unaccounted for in TE 28.

Download the file TE28CERAMIC.TXT (24 KB) or the file TE28CERAMIC.XLSX (33 KB).


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