Dear Histarch folks- 

As many of you surmised, this first on-line month of our type collection site is a test and tweak stage. With five people working nearly full-time on it for more than a year, we expect (undoubtedly not being able to see the pot for the potsherds) that there will be more than a few glitches and errors that we have overlooked. So we DO appreciate all of your comments and feedback, even the curmudgeonly ones, Carl and George! 

OK, the "agateware" doorknob was a horrific blooper that we thought had been purged long ago. It's gone. Ditto the hand painted creamware, which should have been "edged creamware", as some of you pointed out. We also appreciate the date corrections that George offered on Ironstone and other refined earthenware types, and we will be changing the database to reflect his comments. 

I should point out that the site is based on the Florida Museum ceramic type collection, as it was constituted by John Goggin, Charles Fairbanks, Florence and Bob Lister, and to a small extent, me. It is obviously strongest in sixteenth through mid-eighteenth century materials typically found on Spanish colonial sites. 

We struggled over how to address the refined earthenwares, which constitute a relatively small, and probably not terribly representative part of the collection. To treat them comprehensively, our database, by its nature, would require us to create a separate "type" for each variety of edging, and for each different scene on sherds. Because of the small and limited nature of the pearlware collection, we chose (perhaps erroneously) to group all of the "edged pearlwares" and the "transfer printed pearlwares" under a generic heading, hoping that people interested in these wares would pursue the references to better sources and examples than our site could provide. However we are now coming around to thinking that we probably should have approached the refined earthenwares in a more comprehensive way. Despite some expressed doubts, this will be a very simple thing to change and add, thanks to our fine database design team. 

We are also considering adding examples of other examples and varieties of refined earthenwares to the site (and type collection) that might help make it more useful. We would particularly welcome any suggestions anyone might have about doing this. 

We were also really hoping to get feedback on some other, basic taxonomic issues. For example, we feel that the Goggin and Lister collections (in particular) have historical significance in and of themselves, not only for identifying and comparing ceramics, but also as a basic stage in ceramic taxonomic development in historical archaeology (particularly for majolicas). We have therefore retained the original type identification for each sherd assigned by the Listers or Goggin respectively. If the name itself has changed, this is reflected in the "Alternate Type Name" field, which can be found both on the "Type Index Specimen" page, and on the "Browse and Search" page. 

We have, however, received thoughtful comments from researchers who feel that the original identification of some of these sherds is incorrect. This brings up a couple of questions - should we have an "original ID" field and a "corrected ID" field? Whose ID should we consider "correct?" And on what criteria? Which published sources are the most authoritative and used most widely among those of us actually working in the field? 

We can check some of the ID challenges with some of the researchers who provided the original ID's - Florence Lister, Donna Seifert, Jack and Anita Williams, Linda Shulsky, for example, but we can't check with Goggin or Fairbanks (at least I can't!). 

We are absolutely open to suggestion and critique, so thanks again for your comments. We will be checking Histarch regularly, and our site's link to the "webmaster" goes both to me ([log in to unmask]) and to Al Woods, our HA collections manager ([log in to unmask]). Please keep them coming, and show no mercy! We can take it, and will be better off for it! 

Thanks, Anita!

Kathy 

Kathleen Deagan
Distinguished Research Curator
Florida Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 117800
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800
PH: (352) 392-1721x490
FAX: (352) 846-0287 

www.flmnh.ufl.edu/histarch