Indigenous Ceramic Technology within the Pluralistic Context of Mission San Antonio de Valero

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

At its final site, Mission San Antonio de Valero was occupied from 1724 to 1793. Members of more than 100 indigenous groups resided in the mission during this 69 year period. Five pottery making traditions were represented within these ethnic groups. Petrographic and instrumental neutron activation analyses, and experimental replicative studies were used to document the variation in native-made ceramics recovered from recent excavations. The results suggest that potters quickly adopted the use of locally available clays but continued to use a variety of clay fabric recipes. Native made wares appear homogenous on the outside but betray pre-mission ceramic traditions in the clay fabric. This paper considers the factors that may have contributed to the outward homogenization of ceramic technology and how indigenous group identity may have shifted over time within the pluralistic context of the mission.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology