Ronald L. Bishop

Locally-made or Imported? Identifying Ceramic Composition Variation in the San Francisco Presidio Jurisdiction

In the late 18th century, representatives of the Spanish empire occupied the San Francisco Bay Area and rapidly transformed the region through the introduction of agriculture, animal husbandry, Roman Catholicism, the Spanish language, and the use of pottery. This paper focuses on the latter, evaluating questions of local manufacture or importation of ceramic materials among missions, the presidio, and pueblos within the San Francisco Presidio Jurisdiction. Through the application of instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramic materials, local production of earthenwares at each of the missions is shown whereas glazed ware patterns reveal a mix of local and nonlocal sources. These patterns provide insights into the manufacture, supply, and exchange of ceramics in the San Francisco Bay Area, and through them a window on the materiality of the colonial encounter.

INSTRUMENTAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING MESOAMERICAN ECONOMY: ELUSIVE PROMISES

Abstract More than four decades ago, instrumental developments, such as those involving neutron activation and X-ray florescence, began to generate relatively large quantities of data from the analysis of archaeological materials. These data served as the basis for many models of long-distance exchange as a means of explaining the development of cultural complexity. I review aspects of this early history and the how use of compositional data is now more directed toward localized investigations of economic activity. Even with this refocus of research interest, studies involving material characterization appear to be declining. Using traditional citation, personal experience, and highly selective examples, I discuss the use of analytical techniques for studies of long-distance trade, as it developed and now confronts interpretive difficulties that are inherent in the data and rendered more so by use of abstract constructs and resource limitations.

Texas Mission Ceramics: Origins of Manufacture and Distribution during the Eighteenth Century

Nearly 800 ceramic sherds from 10 Spanish colonial sites in Texas were analyzed using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) as a tool for understanding the local-resource production and distribution of Native American pottery, lead-glazed coarse earthenwares, and tin-glazed wares (majolica). The chemical characteristics of their pastes were compared to identify similarities that might indicate sources of manufacture. Data were also compared to other INAA studies. Combined with accounts of known supply stations and supply routes into Texas, the authors were able to identify three manufacturing locales for Native American pottery and five for lead-glazed wares. Evidence of a period of transition between Native American technologies and European technologies was also inferred.