Hi Kendra - its like deja vu all over again. I posted a similar query on Histarch in 2001 and got replies from Australia, Galveston, and Ohio. Examples of these marked "Brevetes S.G.D.G./St Henry Marseille" "Martin Freres" and others were found in turn of the 20th century contexts at Ft. Johnson, in Charleston. The Galveston examples were from a similar context. Check the histarch archive for more info... Carl Steen


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Kendra Kennedy <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:34 am
Subject: Historic Clay Roofing Tiles - Sources Needed!










Dear Histarchers,

I'm searching for information on clay roofing tiles.  Specifically, I am working 
on a submerged site (probably a ballast pile or dump) in Pensacola, Florida in 
conjunction with my thesis on the maritime landscape of the Pensacola 
waterfront.  The ballast pile in question is covered with fragments of terra 
cotta roofing tile and little else, besides rocks.  The age of the pile is 
unclear.  It is visible on more recent aerial photos, but is not depicted on 
historic maps.  As of yet, no historic documents have been uncovered that 
mention this pile.  Therefore, the clay roofing tiles may be the only age 
indicator.

The tiles examined so far appear to be flat, interlocking clay roofing tiles.  
Stamped into some of the broken tiles are fragmentary imprints, maybe 
representing company names, tile style names, or production location names.  
These include "D ETIENNE" or "B ETIENNE" and "RIOUE L" as well as a myriad of 
shorter fragmented imprints.  

I have already searched Google, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Historical Archaeology 
(SHA), Worldcat and Worldcat Dissertations.  Although I did not exhaustively 
read the synopsis of every hit, I was disappointed by the lack of relevant 
archaeological references to historic clay roofing tiles.  Most of the hits 
referenced Greek and Roman tiles or the preservation of historic building roofs.  
Nothing jumped out at me, other than a few sources only available from one 
library in Australia. :)  I hope that there are numerous references out there 
buried in non-indexed book chapters and gray literature.  If anyone has done a 
fair amount of research into clay roofing tiles, I would appreciate your 
assistance in identifying these tiles.  If anyone has compiled a bibliography of 
relevant sources (especially about tiles commonly used in the South and the tile 
companies that produced them), that would be amazing!  Please email me off-list.  
I'd be happy to provide my results to the entire lis!
 tserv once I've compiled the responses (if any).

Sincere thanks,
~Kendra Kennedy
UWF Graduate Student, Maritime and Historical Archaeology 

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