Agent of Change: The Deposition and Manipulation of Ash in the Past

Ash is an important and yet understudied aspect of ritual deposition in the archaeological record of North America. Ash has been found in a wide variety of contexts across many regions and often it is associated with rare or unusual objects or in contexts that suggest its use in the transition or transformation of houses and ritual features. Drawn from across the U.S. and Mesoamerica, the chapters in this volume explore the use, meanings, and cross-cultural patterns present in the use of ash. and highlight the importance of ash in ritual closure, social memory, and cultural transformation.

Barbara Roth is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her recent research has focused on changes in household and community organization that occur as groups become more sedentary and dependent on agriculture and move from pithouses to pueblos in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico.

E. Charles Adams is Emeritus Curator of Archaeology, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. Prior to retiring in 2020, Adams taught in the School of Anthropology in addition to being museum curator for 35 years. Adams directed a 30-year research program in the ancestral Hopi villages of Homol’ovi in northeastern Arizona and has sole-authored or edited more than a dozen books/monographs describing this research.