Using American Coarse Earthenware Types as a Tool for Site Interpretation and Comparison at Monticello
November 20, 2024
Paper presented at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Williamsburg, VA, November 14-16
By Chris Devine
A growing body of scholarship on locally made coarse earthenwares in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic has provided archaeologists with important comparative data and insights into the regional production, marketing, and use of coarse earthenwares. Recent excavations at Site 30, a late 18th-century quarter site for enslaved agricultural workers at Monticello, have uncovered various types of American coarse earthenware, including a distinctive lead-glazed variety currently unaffiliated with any regional workshop. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of this coarse earthenware type by comparing its visual characteristics to those from previous studies of coarse earthenwares at Monticello and other sites. It also will explore several possible explanations for why it is found across the plantation landscape on sites with different dates of occupation.