Petrography and Provenance of Pottery Sherds from Islands in the Southern Lesser Antilles, Caribbean

Summary

Native Amerindian groups who inhabited the southern Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean likely used local materials for temper in the manufacturing of pottery, but may have transported pottery once it was produced. To identify potential sources of temper and possible movement of these resources and/or pottery, we conducted petrographic analysis of Pre-Columbian ceramics found on various islands, including Barbados, Mustique, Carriacou, and Union. Each island exhibits distinct geology with sand components that may have been used in the tempering of ceramics. A sample set of 93 sherds was thin sectioned and stained for feldspar identification prior to petrographic analysis. Sherds were categorized by their temper types and representative samples from each type were selected for point counting using the Gazzi-Dickinson method. Sherds from Carriacou exhibit four distinct tempers, Union two, Mustique three and Barbados, which has one distinct temper with two sub-types. Results demonstrate that the Mustique and Barbados temper compositions directly reflect their own island geology, implying local production of temper and pottery. In contrast, Carriacou tempers appear to be imported, possibly from nearby Union Island, due to similar temper compositions of two temper groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• People, Pottery, and Petrography: Recent research in ceramic petrography

Keywords

Spatial Coverage