"Refining" Coarse Earthenware Types from the British Coal Measures

Summary

Ceramics analysis, particularly the identification and dating of ware types on historic sites, structures our inferences in critical ways. However, our ware types and production date ranges are sometimes built on incomplete information about the origins of these wares. The Coal Measures region of Great Britain, encompassing production centers such as Staffordshire and the major port of Liverpool, was the source for a variety of earthenware products, both coarse and refined during the colonial era. While many coarse earthenwares have been attributed to discrete locations within the region, with names like "Buckley" or "Staffordshire," geological, historical, and elemental evidence demonstrates that these ware types conflate products of numerous production centers within the broader Coal Measures.  I define the visible and elemental attributes of coarse earthenwares from throughout the Coal Measures, offering enhanced geographic and temporal resolution for wares recovered archaeologically in the British Atlantic. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2017   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 385