Chris Pickerell wrote:

> For the last several years I have been studying local, 19th century
> potteries (i.e., Greenport and Sag Harbor) on the east end of Long
> Island, New York in an attempt to attribute wares.  I am especially
> interested in redware.  As you might imagine it is very difficult to
> tease local production from that of Connecticut, New Jersey and other
> nearby potteries, but I have had some limited success.


Although you claim to be a nonspecialist  lurker, you clearly
understand archaeological problems we commonly address.

You have very clearly stated an issue that vexes us all the time.
Generally speaking, ceramics are most easily traced by analysis of the
potter's waster dumps and marked pieces found on sites or in the
marketplace.   These identifications are subjective and purely visual,
depending largely upon the analyst's expertise and experience.

Marked pieces give a quickie distribution, but chemical analysis of
paste could  define more sharply the origins of pottery found on a
particular site,

We have the situation here in lower Delaware that vexes us quite often.
  We are nominally in the historic Philadelphia market, but some parts
of Delaware are in the Chesapeake market.  A particular species of slip
decorated ware is colloquially called "Philadelphia" ware, even though
it was made in Alexandria, Virginia, and in local potteries elsewhere,
including Delaware.  If we could sort the "Philadelphia" potteries
found on a particular site according to origins,  we would learn a
whole lot about Colonial trade patterns.

It would be really great to know how much trade crossed the peninsula
between the Delaware and Chesapeake drainages, where we are working.
Locally made ceramics and imported goods should be a useful indicator
for that trade.  Right now, we are looking at the differences between
the two sides of the Delmarva Peninsula, and extrapolating them to
reflect influences on a larger scale.  For example, in Delaware one
sees few white clay pipe stems on a site, while they are ubiquitous on
Chesapeake sites.  If we find lots of pipe stems in a Delaware site, we
infer Chesapeake influences. It's a rough but useful marker, but it
would be nice to find markers that are more specific and more
definitive.



Edward F. Heite
Heite Consulting, Inc.
Archaeologists and Historians
P O Box 53, Camden, Delaware 19934
www.heite.org