Archaeology Centre presents - Invisible Potters, Visible Signatures: Tracing Ceramic Production Communities in the Colonial Southeast
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Colonoware, a hand-built, low-fired coarse earthenware, appears on archaeological sites occupied
from the mid-17th to mid-19th century throughout the southeastern United States. The mysteries
of colonoware—who made it and for whom it was made—have sparked ongoing and heated
debates. To date, most analyses have focused on localized models of production and use or debates
about the ethnicity of manufacturers. What is clear is that colonoware is a deeply contextual
material manifestation of related strategies enslaved and free African, African American, and
Indigenous communities developed in response to the oppressive and disruptive conditions
caused by colonial regimes. Our current research project applies fine grained artifact analyses to
thousands of colonoware artifacts from sites across the Southeastern United States to identify
regional “recipes” for this pottery type. This approach enhances our understanding of how
colonoware producers contributed to, circumvented, and even disrupted traditional European
markets.
