Sourcing a Secret Recipe: An XRF Study of Barbadian Ceramics

Summary

During the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, enslaved African and poor white potters produced redware vessels in eastern parishes across the British Caribbean Island of Barbados. While potters predominantly catered to the burgeoning Barbadian sugar industry, they also crafted domestic vessel forms that emerged as key fixtures in local markets. Despite their economic impact, Barbadian potters are archaeologically invisible: The utilitarian wares they produced are nearly identical to European-made vessels. Siedow's (2010, 2011) SEM studies of Scotland District wares and Gunter's (2013) XRF analysis of radiolarian-rich Scotland District clays, however, suggest that radiolarian may serve as a diagnostic marker of some Barbadian-made earthenwares. Building upon these studies, this paper compares the chemical and radiolarian "fingerprint" of one Scotland District pothouse's unique clay "recipe" with those of redware assemblages from the historic period—with the goal of defining the clay "recipes" used by local Barbadian potters during the eighteenth-century sugar trade. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Multicultural Caribbean and Its Overlooked Histories   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 544