Colonial America Visits Colonial California: A Scenic Transfer-printed Vessel at Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Summary

Ceramics can often be used to identify changes in artifact assemblages on a scale of years, rather than in generations or centuries. There are potentially some useful applications of absolute and relative dating techniques for ceramic assemblages recovered from California’s Spanish missions. Recent excavations at Mission Santa Clara’s Rancheria (Indian Village) produced an assemblage of imported English ceramics, some with tightly defined production dates, which aids in our interpretation of the site. However, we base our analyses not just on the manufacturing range, but also on economic, social and heirloom effects, among others. This is particularly important when dealing with isolated, "frontier" type sites, such as California’s Spanish Colonial missions, to which the delivery of imported goods was often very sporadic. This paper focuses on the analysis of a subterranean pit feature, the bottom level of which produced portions of a transfer-printed vessel whose production dates ranged from 1814-1834. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond Blue Willow: New Analyses of Transfer Printed Wares   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 946