Stoneware base sherd, lead glaze on interior (Archaeological Find)

Stoneware base sherd, lead glaze on interior

Before modern hygiene with waste removal from proper toilets, stoneware chamber pots were often covered only with a glaze to prevent the liquid waste from leaking through. These vessels were constructed to permit the storage of human liquids in a safe manner while the unglazed exterior of the chamber pot demonstrates its utilitarian nature. Chambers pots were used in private homes and typically stored where an owner would need them every day (Hume, 1969).

The Harvard Yard Excavations reveal how students lived in early Harvard College through the understanding of the common realities of their living environments. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the majority of students lived in dormitory-style housing that lacked indoor plumbing and sewage lines. They were given chamber pots to use overnight, which then had to be emptied in the morning into outdoor privies, cesspits, or garbage piles (Deetz, 1996). Chamber pots provided the ability to maintain cleanliness during periods of overcrowding in institutional settings.

The presence of chamber pots in students' dorms describes how both hygiene and waste management were elements of what constitutes a scholastic experience in early Harvard College. Diana DiPaolo Loren states that the daily experiences of students were impacted by the management of the smells, smoke, and human waste that they encountered in their shared living spaces (Loren, 2022). Chamber pots existed in the dormitory rooms as a result of the fact that while studying in a scholarly institution, the needs of a student would also impact their hygiene and bodily care.

Although this chamber pot is incomplete, it demonstrates how the daily existence at Harvard was supported by the systems of society that manage our basic needs as humans.

Deetz, James 1996 All the Earthenware Plain and Flowered. In In Small Things Forgotten : [An Archaeology of Early American Life]. New York : Anchor Books. https://research-ebsco-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/c/tweq5y/ebook-viewer/epub/r4bkwyvdlv/section/cvi?location=https%25253A%25252F%25252Fresearch-ebsco-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu%25252Fc%25252Ftweq5y%25252Fsearch%25252Fdetails%25252Fr4bkwyvdlv%25253Frequest-context%25253Dplink%252526db%25253Dnlebk%252526db%25253Dnlabk.

Hume, Ivor Noël 1969[1969] Chamber Pots, Bedpans, Closetpool Pans. In A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America Pp. 145–150. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Loren, Diana DiPaolo. 2022. “Smoke and Spirit: Exploring Bodily and Sensual Concerns at Early Harvard College.” Historical Archaeology 56 (2): 217–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00344-5.

Stoneware base sherd, lead glaze on interior

Stoneware
Base sherd
lead glaze on interior

2025.8.16

H984

72-86cmbd

Ceramic

1

6.7

9.1

1.3