Garonne Valley coarse earthenware. Characterization of Cox productions, 16th - 18th centuries

Summary

Questions of transatlantic diffusion of 16th-18th century coarse earthenware may be addressed by the geochemical analysis of ceramic pastes. The Atlantic Ocean acted as a ‘filter’ that blocked the diffusion of certain ceramic productions while allowing others to voyage thousands of kilometres to colonial sites. Within the Garonne Valley pottery centres of southwest France, export production may have emanated from only a few workshops, with a majority of workshops targeting the local or regional market. Retracing the European provenance of ceramic objects found on colonial sites in Canada is a process of narrowing production sites down to precise localities, where only a few kilometres can spell the difference between statistically negative and positive geochemical correlations. Our study focuses on the characterization of ceramics from Cox production centres, Haute-Garonne and on their possible correlates found in Canadian archaeological contexts. Different workshop wasters were recovered and analyzed through ICP-AES and MS. Discussion will focus on the interpretation of the compositional data and its use for future provenance studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Latest Developments on French Ceramics in North America: French Production Sites and Centres

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-76,02