Thoughts on the use of Terminus post quem TPQ dates and documentation.
By George L. Miller

In the latest issue of Northeast Historical Archaeology Vol 48, 2019, an
article by D. Hatch and Kerry Gonzalez titled “The Historical Archaeology
of Eighteenth-century Tenancy at Snowen Park Site … Fredericksburg,
Virginia” TPQ dates without any mention of the material type involved or
the source of the information. They are as follows:

Page 82 “The artifacts recovered from the three post holes … indicate that
the building was constructed after 1762 …. It is quite likely, judging from
the 1762 terminus post quem of these features …”

Page 82 “Feature 41 had a TPQ of 1775, indicating that the addition was
constructed after the main building had gone up.”

Page 84 “The TPQ for this stratum is 1795, suggesting that it represents
fill related to abandonment of the site.”

Presumably all of these TPQ dates are all for ceramics, but how much
trouble would it have been for the authors to have added the type of
material involved and the citation to where they got the TPQ dates from.
Not all TPQ dates have equal values.  The 1762 date for Wedgwood’s
perfection of his creamware is an event in time whereas the 1795 date for
the use of polychrome underglaze colors on “Pearlware” is something that
has been determined by research.  Was the creamware from the postholes dark
creamware of the early period or the lighter creamware that followed it?
Noël Hume has a discussion of this in his article “Creamware to Pearlware:
A Williamsburg Perspective” in the 1972 Winterthur Conference Report
Ceramics in America edited by Ian M. G. Quimby, pages 217-254.

Ann Smart Martin did an extensive study of references to the importation of
creamware into the American colonies and came to the conclusion that there
was not much evidence of it showing up before 1779 and then in the homes of
rather well off households.  Give that, how early do you think creamware
would be found in a tenant farm household?  Ann’s article is “Fashionable
Sugar Dishes, Latest Fashion Ware”: The Creamware Revolution in
Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake” pages 169-188 in Historical Archaeology of
the Chesapeake Edited by Paul A. Shackel and Barbara J. Little.
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Figure 7 illustrates some of the ceramics from the CNEHA article.
Unfortunately it is in black and white and the text is mixed up.  If the
illustration was in color, it would have been easier for the reader to
connect the descriptions with the sherds.

Given that there are TPQ dates for many types of materials, it would be a
good idea to tell your reader on what you are basing your date on and where
you got the date.  There is a very extensive list of TPQ dates in the
article “Telling Time for Archaeologists” in Volume 29 of Northeast
Historical Archaeology by George L. Miller, Patricia Samford, Ellen Shlasko
and Andrew Madsen.

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