Micaceous utility wares are commonly found at Ancestral Pueblo villages along the Rio Grande and adjacent areas, yet they have received comparatively little attention relative to the well-studied glaze wares with which they often share contemporaneity. Compositional studies show that glaze wares and their ingredients were often transported around the landscape, driven by a mix of ritualistic and economic factors, but utility wares were also a common component of daily Pueblo activities and are shown to have been involved in complex exchange schemes. Neutron activation analysis is used to chemically characterize micaceous utility sherds from six Pueblo IV (1300 - 1600 CE) sites between Santa Fe and Socorro, New Mexico. Five distribution patterns are recognized based on spatial patterns of compositional groups present within and shared between sites. These indicate procurement and/or manufacturing similarities between the Rio Puerco and the Albuquerque area, and differences to the north near the Jemez Mountains and to the south in the Rio Abajo. These trends are meant to help focus future compositional, geological, and petrographic research.

Excavations conducted by Beloit College in 1958 and 1960 identified the site of La Magdalena in the Bajío of Mexico. Investigators have since highlighted three primary phases of occupation at La Magdalena, two of which were proposed to have been culturally influenced by Teotihuacan or Tula. Modern research in the Bajío mostly diverges from those postulations of distant connections, supplanting them with local patterns that hold much more explanatory power. Archaeometric studies are pivotal in this regard but have thus far been infrequently used. This research analyzes the obsidian assemblage from La Magdalena and finds a nearly ubiquitous utilization of a local obsidian source known as Ojo Zarco. These findings merit a reevaluation of obsidian in the eastern Bajío and argue for more archaeometric studies that elucidate local procurement patterns.