In addition, common conceptions of and approaches to ancient technology and craft production are compartmentalized and medium-based; i.e., studies are conducted within confines of a specific medium such as ceramics, metallurgy or an even more specific domain (e.g., blackware or base metal). These studies often do not consider the relationship of the craft under study to other crafts that were being practiced concurrently at local or regional level (Shimada in press).

Figure 1. Map of the Batán Grande region in the mid-La Leche valley on the north coast of Peru The site of Sicán is situated near the intake of the Túcume canal off the La Leche river. Drawing by I. Shimada.

Cross-craft interaction, the general term that subsumes multi- and intercraft interplay, as well as their material and organizational consequences, has received little attention in archaeology. Investigation has been hampered by the medium-specific approach and conception that pervade current craft production studies. This situation is understandable given the complexity and quantity of information to be leared and sought, our academic formation, and scarcity of research where multiple crafts are investigated in parallel and sufficient depth. An important additional factor is that, more often than not, examples of composite artifacts have been looted from graves and thus lack contextual data and the confidence that the exisiting components are complete or original (Carcedo and Shimada 1985; Shimada 1994b).

Yet, material culture is replete with examples of what are in reality composites of products, knowledge and/or techniques derived from what are analytically treated as distinct crafts, such as ceramics, woodworking, lapidary, metallurgy, and weaving. Andean examples include objects commonly subsumed under the rubric of ritual paraphernalia or status items, such as Sicán and Chimú ponchos with gold plaques sewn on, and Mochica metal masks with inlaid shell eyes, ears and teeth. P. Lyon (1991) suggests that the practice of demarcating each colored area of Pukara polychrome ceramics with broad incisions mar have been adopted from the incision and/or champlevé techniques extensively used in Pukara' S well-developed stone carving tradition. The latter produced rectangular stone slabs with flat relief carvings that, in tum, mar well have influenced or been stimulated by textiles.

In this papel, I am concerned with issues of cross-craft interaction; i.e., how a given product integrated materials, knowledge and/or techniques from various crafts to achieve desired effects and properties, and what such investigation reveals about craft production and its products in general.