Below the Glaze: Absorbed Organic Residue Analysis of 18th- and 19th-Century Refined Earthenwares

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeologists have long used organic compounds absorbed into ceramic pastes to study past foodways. Such research has focused almost exclusively on unglazed ceramics since glazes prevent food residues from seeping into the underlying paste. Over the past decade, however, several studies have shown that organic compounds can absorb into the paste of lead-glazed coarse earthenware through glaze imperfections and areas of use wear. This paper presents preliminary findings from the first gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of absorbed organic residues from 18th- and 19th-century refined earthenware. Our work shows that food residues can be recovered and identified from creamware, pearlware, and whiteware. As a result, this study indicates that absorbed residue analysis can add new dimensions to historical archaeologists’ work on 18th- and 19th-century ceramics through the direct investigation of vessels’ contents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow