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

Teotihuacan Sun Pyramid Cave Dataset
Rebecca Sload

1977 Surface Collection Tracts Ceramic Inventory

The files TRACTSCERAMIC.TXT and TRACTSCERAMIC.XLSX provide vessel shape, weight, and phase information for every ceramic artifact recovered during the 1977 surface collection of the cave. TRACTSCERAMIC.TXT is a comma delimited ASCII text file; TRACTSCERAMIC.XLSX contains the same data in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Each line in the ASCII file represents one ceramic artifact. There are 148 lines, each with 14 variables separated by commas. The variables are listed in the following order:

1 Disturbed or Undisturbed context
2 Collection tract
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 Collection tract and photo number (variables 2 and 3).
4 Drawing available (Y=yes)
5 Weight (g)
6 Total number of Tzacualli-Miccaotli (Tzac-Micc) sherds within collection tract.
7 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase olla (1=yes)
8 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase bowl (1=yes)
9 Sherd is a Tzac-Micc phase jar (1=yes)
10 Tzac-Micc phase sherd vessel shape (if not olla, bowl, or jar)
11 Tlam phase sherd vessel shape
12 Non-phaseable sherd vessel shape
13 Xol phase sherd vessel shape
14 Additional comments (mostly regarding reanalysis)

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

disturbed,1 -- las cuatro cámaras,01,,35.2,8,,1,,,,,,

This means that the context of the sherd is disturbed (all surface sherds are disturbed) and that the sherd was found in Tract 1, the terminus. The Photo # is 1, which combined with the Collection Tract defines the label of the sherd's photo in the Artifact Photographs section of the dataset. There is no drawing, and the weight of the sherd is 35.2 grams. Eight Tzacualli-Miccaotli sherds were found in the Collection Tract, and this particular sherd is a Tzacualli-Miccaotli bowl. There are no other comments.

The last, or 148th line of the ASCII text file is:

disturbed,11 -- entrada a la cueva,12,,8.1,11,,,,,,,olla,post Miccaotli; L. Tlamimilolpa or later

This means that the context of the sherd is disturbed and that it was found in Tract 11, the cave entrance chamber. The Photo # is 12, which combined with the Collection Tract defines the label of the sherd's photo in the Artifact Photographs section of the dataset. There is no drawing, and the weight of the sherd is 8.1 grams. Eleven Tzacualli-Miccaotli sherds were found in the Collection Tract. This particular sherd does not belong to that group, but is instead a Xolalpan phase olla. The reanalysis comment is that the sherd is post Miccaotli, Late Tlamimilolpa or later.

Download the file TRACTSCERAMIC.TXT (6 KB) or the file TRACTSCERAMIC.XLSX (23 KB).


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