Ceramic vessel base fragment, Buckley-type (Archaeological Find)
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Title:
Ceramic vessel base fragment, Buckley-type
Subject:
In the mid 18th century, the Buckley district potters of North Wales were hard at work creating ceramic vessels - creampans, storage jars, and pitchers - to be shipped across the Atlantic for use in the New World. This unique artifact type is readily identifiable by its pink-firing and yellow clays, which are believed to have been combined to make the clay more workable (JPPM, Noël Hume 2001). It is most often found with the black lead-glaze interior coating seen here. On complete Buckley-type ceramics, there is often a thick ribbing around the body accompanied by a prominent, angular rim (SMU). This type of ceramic saw continuous shipment from Wales to the Colonies from approximately 1720-1775; its end coinciding with the beginnings of the American Revolution (Noël Hume 2001).
At Harvard, this paints a powerful image of Buckley-type ceramics as a vestige of the colonial period. Placing ourselves in the shoes of a Harvard student in the period just after the American Revolution, Buckley-type ceramics may represent just one manifestation of things to change as a new country found its feet and won its independence. The cessation of importing this type of ceramic symbolizes the deeper separation to take place between the soon-to-be United States of America and Great Britain. Unlike revolution and the struggle for independence, Buckley-type ceramics would fade quietly into the archaeological record to be re-discovered and learned from by us today.
Source:
https://www.smu.ca/anthropology/anthropology-buckley-ware.html
- This source reflects an academic record of this ceramic type with its origin and median date of use in the archaeological record. As an academic source, I find it helpful and trustworthy for reliable information about this artifact type and its colonial context.
https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/ColonialCeramics/Colonial%20Ware%20Descriptions/Buckley.html
- This site due to its wealth of information, availability of quality photographs, and trustworthiness as an official government website for cataloging information about diagnostic artifacts.
Noël Hume, Ivor. 2001. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- As our go-to reference for classifying colonial artifacts in North America, Hume is a textual resource with a wealth of knowledge that has informed archaeologists concerned in this time period and location since its publication.
Object Name:
Ceramic vessel base fragment
Inventory Description:
earthenware, lead-glazed, Buckley Type
Peabody Number:
2023.11.9
Culture/Period:
1720-1775
Intrasite:
H976 Lvl 1
Depth:
0-10cm
Class 1:
Ceramic
Class 2:
Sherd
Class 3:
Base
Quantity:
1
Height (cm):
2
Width (cm):
8
Depth/Thickness (cm):
5
Century:
18