Adding and Subtracting: Manipulating Ceramic Manufacture to Signal Cultural Identity Among Indigenous Populations of the San Antonio Missions

Summary

The analysis of ceramic assemblages was a corner stone of Dr. Gilmore's approach to Spanish Colonial Studies.  Following this tradition, the presentation uses the results of pertrographic analyses of native-made ceramics assemblages from several of the South Texas and coastal plains missions to track the manipulation of manufacture techniques among ethinically distinct indigenous groups.  The combination of microscopic ceramic fabric characteristics with macroscopic decorative approaches suggest that potters added or subtracted macroscopic features of the ceramic vessels to signal changes in ethnic affiliation while retaining the microscopic features of the ceramic fabric relatively intact.  At the petrographic level of analysis the characteristics of the clay fabric tend to be more directly reflective of clay source localities.  Ethnohistoric data on population censuses is used to track residence and movement of distinct ethinc groups between missions and correlate them to patterns in ceramic asemblages.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Dr. Kathleen K. Gilmore’s Legacy and the Future of Spanish and French Colonial Archaeology in Tejas

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 682