Colonoware Alongside Imported Ceramics: Overview of Post-Self-Emancipation Local Pottery Production on Providencia Island, Colombia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Colonowares are often recovered at colonial period sites in the Americas where peoples of African descent resided, and are low-fired, made from locally sourced clays and flux materials, and can be plain or decorated. Many archaeologists suggest that the practice of making this pottery is an African-based craft, however Indigenous influences (particularly in colonial contexts) cannot be overlooked. The presence of colonowares provides important information about the lifeways of enslaved people and Maroons because these wares were produced and traded outside of the colonial industrial complex. Recent excavations on Providencia recovered colonoware sherds that were coiled/hand molded and open air fired, much like those collected in other Caribbean contexts. These ceramics appear to be made with local clay and include red rock and quartz – a material linked to the Maroons of the island via oral history. On Providencia, methods for producing colonoware likely resulted from a combination of historical memory of peoples of African descent and methods learned from interactions with Indigenous people from coastal and inland sites. These findings are in line with Providencia’s oral history which places residents of African, Miskito, and European descent on the island since the early 1600s.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39679.0