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An Elemental Approach to the Distribution of Lead-Glazed CoarseEarthenware in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lindsay Bloch
Lindsay Bloch*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratories of Archaeology, CB3120, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3120 (lbloch@live.unc.edu)
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Abstract

Unlike many goods in the eighteenth century, which were wholly imported,utilitarian coarse earthenwares were also produced locally within theAmerican colonies. In the Chesapeake region, it has been suggested thatthese local wares were primarily reserved for those unable to directlyparticipate in the transatlantic credit economy fostered by the tobaccoconsignment system. Rather than relying on ambiguous visual attributes toidentify these wares, this study utilized elemental analysis via LA-ICP-MS.Coarse earthenwares from domestic plantation contexts of varying socialstatus were assigned to production zones based on shared elementalcomposition with a reference dataset. This reference dataset incorporatedsherds from historic earthenware production sites across the mid-Atlanticand in Great Britain, representing 12 geologically distinct productionzones. The results emphasize the diversity of coarse earthenware sourcesthat Chesapeake residents accessed, both local and imported. There was asteady decrease in the use of imported wares in favor of domestically madeproducts over time. There were no sharp differences among plantationhouseholds of different statuses, suggesting that these everyday wares wereequally accessible to all, perhaps via plantation provisioning strategies.The omnipresence of local wares is evidence for the pragmatic and politicalstrengths of local production.

A diferencia de muchos objetos del siglo XVIII, que fueron totalmenteimportados, también se produjeron cerámicas utilitarias de manera localdentro de las colonias americanas. En la región de Chesapeake, se sugiereque estos objetos de producción local estaban reservados principalmente paraaquellos que no podían participar directamente en la economía de créditotransatlántico fomentado por el sistema de consignación de tabaco. En lugarde depender de las características visuales ambiguas para la identificaciónde este tipo de cerámicas, en este estudio se utilizó el análisis elementalLA-ICP-MS. El conjunto de datos incorpora muestras de sitios históricos demanufactura cerámica de la regiones del Atlántico Medio y Gran Bretaña, loque representa doce zonas de producción geológicamente distintas. Cerámicasutilitarias de contextos domésticos de plantaciones (ca. 1690–1830), dediferentes estatus social, fueron asignados a estas zonas de producción deacuerdo a la composición elemental similar. Los resultados demuestran ladiversidad de fuentes de estas cerámicas, tanto locales como importadas, alas que los residentes de Chesapeake podían acceder. A través del tiempo,hubo una disminución constante en el uso de las mercancías importadas afavor de los productos fabricados localmente. No se observaron grandesdiferencias entre las unidades domésticas de las plantaciones de estatussociales diferentes, lo que sugiere que estas mercancías cotidianas eranigualmente disponibles y utilizados por todos, tal vez siendo una de lasestrategias de aprovisionamiento de las plantaciones. La omnipresència decerámicas locales es evidencia de la fortaleza pragmática de las políticasde producción local.

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American Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 231 - 252
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Copyright © 2016 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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