COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF FRENCH COLONIAL CERAMICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING TRADE AND EXCHANGE

Abstract

Kenneth G. Kelly Department of Anthropology University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 [e-mail] Mark W. Hauser Department of Africana Studies University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556 [e-mail] Christophe Descantes Archaeological Research Facility University of California–Berkeley 2251 College Building Berkeley, CA 94720-1076 [e-mail] Michael D. Glascock Archaeometry Laboratory University of Missouri Research Reactor 1513 Research Park Drive Columbia, MO 65211 [e-mail] There is a considerable literature that explores the significance of low-fired earthenware production as a component of African Diaspora identity creation and maintenance both in the West Indies and in the American Southeast. Yet very little analysis has gone into understanding the role of industrially-produced, low-fired, earthenware ceramics in the Caribbean. We believe that these ceramics may be an overlooked archaeological resource. Although they do not typically reflect the fairly rapid changes in style that make European ceramics useful for chronology building, and whereas they do not usually exhibit stylistic and morphological variations that enable clear identification of their origin, they were produced in great quantity and transported around the West Indies to serve a wide variety of uses. We suggest that industrially-produced, low-fired, earthenwares may provide us with more information than simply their functional purpose. They may also prove useful as a key aspect of material culture to aid in the reconstruction of trade and interaction patterns, dependant, of course on being able to identify the place of origin of these ceramics. This article discusses compositional analysis of archaeological ceramics and wasters (poorly fired ceramics) recovered from historic kiln sites on the islands of Martinique and the Guadeloupe Archipelago. Compositional data from kiln sites are then compared to ceramic sherds from excavated domestic contexts elsewhere on these islands to begin to reconstruct trade and exchange patterns during the French Colonial period. The results from these analyses not only point to expected routes of trade, but also routes which contravened colonial boundaries. ____________________________________________