Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 8-138
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 253-4099
swcarter@mit.edu
Laboratory Supervisor and Research Scientist
As CMRAE Laboratory Supervisor, I facilitate the use of CMRAE laboratories by students and faculty. In the role of CMRAE Technical Instructor, I teach the laboratory components of CMRAE graduate subjects. My research focuses on the geological constitution of ceramic raw materials to address archaeological questions about ceramic technology and provenance. The main part of my research uses petrographic analysis and isotopic analysis to address long-standing problems concerning the provenance of prehistoric (AD 900-1200) Ancestral Puebloan ceramic traditions of the eastern Grand Canyon area of northern Arizona, USA. I have also conducted compositional and morphological characterization of black-painted Ancestral Puebloan ceramics in search of direct evidence for the role of carbon as a colorant in black ceramic paints, which has long been indirectly identified by the absence of iron or manganese.
Selected Publications
(2009 forthcoming) Carter, S.W., B. Wiegand, G.A. Mahood, F.O. Dudas, J.L. Wooden, A.P. Sullivan, and S.A. Bowring. Strontium Isotopic Evidence for Ancestral Puebloan Transport of Gray-Ware Ceramics in the Eastern Grand Canyon Region. Geoarchaeology.
Carter, S.W. and A.P. Sullivan. 2007 Direct Procurement of Ceramics and Ceramic Materials, “Index Wares,” and Models of Regional Exchange and Interaction: Implications of Petrographic and Geological Data from the Upper Basin and Coconino Plateau. In Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest, A.P. Sullivan and J.M. Bayman (Eds.), pp. 139-162. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.