Out of the shadows…’: Examining Historic-Period Indian-made Ceramics Using Subtypological Analysis

Summary

Maryland’s indigenous population, especially Indian women, transformed Early British American society during the 17th century. Maryland Indian women provided sustenance and crafts and served as cultural brokers, providing colonists with food and native-made goods, including aboriginal ceramics. Typing historic-period Native American ceramics in the Chesapeake region is challenging due to overlapping (and sometimes conflicting) typological attributes. Additionally, classifying wares by type discounts indigenous potters’ agency in creating surface decorations as a method of communication or in response to English consumers’ preferences. Subtypological analysis offers a more accurate method of classifying ceramics. Sampling native-made ceramics from eight historic-period sites not only elucidates changes in production methods over the course of the 17th century, but also suggests the presence of a female potter living on or near an English homestead and creates a model for future research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Encounters: The Lower Potomac River Valley at Contact, 1500-1720 AD   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-3,05