Ceramic Identification In Historical Archaeology

All of the editors of this volume have often been occupied (if not preoccupied) with ceramic artifact identification and cataloguing.We have participated in workshops and symposia in several venues and have all spent time sorting, categorizing, and dating ceramics.We urgently (and selfishly) felt there was a distinct need for a volume with a Western perspective, one containing original essays in addition to particularly useful primary and secondary sources.The dilemma facing us was to find succinct reference information that would not only cover the broad spectrum of ceramic forms but also target what we were actually finding in California's archaeological sites. Essays chosen for this volume emphasize identifying ceramics and gathering relevant information for the identification and cataloging process.

Ceramics are some of the most numerous and best-preserved artifacts found in the historical archaeological record of the American West.

This is an up-to-date account of the different kinds of information that can be obtained through the archaeological study of pottery.

Studies in Contemporary and Historical Archaeology 1 This study of post-medieval ceramic production and consumption in the Lower Rhineland is prefaced by a survey of previous work and approaches in the field. With the initiation of large-scale urban excavations in the Lower Rhineland during the 1980s, particularly in the town of Duisburg, an extensive sequence of pottery has been recovered dating from c .1400 to 1800, enabling archaeologists for the first time to re-examine traditional chronologies, attributions and socio-economic interpretations. This survey comprises 95 individual assemblages of pottery from sites excavated in Duisburg and from towns and rural sites in the region. Studies in Contemporary and Historical Archaeology is a new series of edited and single-authored volumes intended to make available current work on the archaeology of the recent and contemporary past. The series brings together contributions from academic historical archaeologists, professional archaeologists and practitioners from cognate disciplines who are engaged with archaeological material and practices.

This volume draws together topics and methodologies essential for the socio-cultural, mineralogical, and geochemical analysis of archaeological ceramic, one of the most complex and ubiquitous archaeomaterials in the archaeological record. It provides an invaluable resource for archaeologists, anthropologists, and archaeological materials scientists.

Erica Gibson’s comprehensive guide provides a much-needed catalogue of ceramic makers' marks of British, French, German, and American origin found in North American archaeological sites. Consisting of nearly 350 marks from 112 different manufacturers from the mid-19th through early 20th century, this catalog provides full information on both the history of the mark and its variants, as well as details about the manufacturer. A set of indexes allow for searches by manufacturer, location, mark elements, and common words used. This guide will be of interest not only to historical archaeologists, but material culture specialists, collectors, museum professionals, students, art historians, and others interested in ceramics.

The potteries of the East Liverpool district were the largest domestic producers of ceramic wares between 1890 and 1940. This volume includes a brief history of the local pottery industry from its inception to the present. This treatise is designed to provide a reference for the identification and interpretation of archaeological data. It also contains peripheral appendices to facilitate effective use of the publication.

Pottery is the most ubiquitous find in most historical archaeological excavations and serves as the basis for much research in the discipline. But it is not only its frequency that makes it a prime dataset for such research, it is also that pottery embeds many dimensions of the human experience, ranging from the purely technical to the eminently symbolic. The aim of this book is to provide a cutting-edge theoretical and methodological framework, as well as a practical guide, for archaeologists, students and researchers to study ceramic assemblages. As opposed to the conventional typological approach, which focuses on vessel shape and assumed function with the main goal of establishing a chronological sequence, the proposed framework is based on the technological approach. Such an approach utilizes the concept of chaîne opératoire, which is geared to an anthropological interpretation of archaeological objects. The author offers a sound theoretical background accompanied by an original research strategy whose presentation is at the heart of this book. This research strategy is presented in successive chapters that are geared to explain not only how to study archaeological assemblages, but also why the proposed methods are essential for achieving ambitious interpretive goals. In the heated debate on the equation stating that “pots equal people”, which is a rather fuzzy reference to assumed relationships between (mostly) ethnic groups and pottery, technology enables us to propose with conviction the equation “pots equal potters”. In this way, a well-founded history of potters is able to achieve a much better cultural and anthropological understanding of ancient societies.​

The Cambridge Companion to Historical Archaeology provides an overview of the international field of historical archaeology (c.AD 1500 to the present) through seventeen specially-commissioned essays from leading researchers in the field. The volume explores key themes in historical archaeology including documentary archaeology, the writing of historical archaeology, colonialism, capitalism, industrial archaeology, maritime archaeology, cultural resource management and urban archaeology. Three special sections explore the distinctive contributions of material culture studies, landscape archaeology and the archaeology of buildings and the household. Drawing on case studies from North America, Europe, Australasia, Africa and around the world, the volume captures the breadth and diversity of contemporary historical archaeology, considers archaeology's relationship with history, cultural anthropology and other periods of archaeological study, and provides clear introductions to alternative conceptions of the field. This book is essential reading for anyone studying or researching the material remains of the recent past.