Production, exchange and consumption of glazed wares in New Spain: formation of a database of elemental composition through INAA
Translation of the Spanish by Eduardo Williams
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Research Year:  2006
Culture:  Spanish Colonial, Mexican
Chronology:  Colonial
Location:  México City, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí, Chihuahua
Sites:  México City (Templo Mayor, Palacio Nacional, Tlatelolco, Alameda Central, Coyoacán, Churubusco, San Ángel); Puebla (city of Puebla, Cholula); Tlaxcala; city of Oaxaca; Michoacán (Tzintzuntzan, Cuitzeo, Uricho, Pátzcuaro, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Capula, Patamban, Zipiajo, Zinapécuaro); Guanajuato (Hacienda de San Gabriel, Mina La Valenciana, Santa Rosa, San Felipe Torres Mochas); ciudad de Aguascalientes; San Luis Potosí (city of San Luis Potosí, Villa de Reyes, Real de 14); Jalisco (Tlaquepaque, Tonalá, Sayula Basin); Chihuahua (Presidio Carrizal, misión Santa María de las Cuevas, Casa de Huesos); Durango (Nayar Viejo, Tapias, Ferrería, Navacoyan, Nombre de Dios); Zacatecas (Hacienda de Bernardes, Presa de los Infantes, Pánuco, Veta Grande, Sombrerete, La Noria de San Pantaleón); Sinaloa (Sinaloa de Leiva, El Fuerte)

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA)
Majolica
Glazed Ware
Elemental Analysis of Glazed Wares
Results of the Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis
Final Remarks
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Sources Cited

Abstract

This report presents the results of an investigation that contributes to the understanding of raw material sources utilized in the production of lead glazed ceramics (majolica and glazed earthenwares) in New Spain. Complementary aspects of documentary research and ceramic paste compositional analysis by means of instrumental neutron activation analyses provide the basis for the establishment of different compositional groups of historically relevant ceramics. Through the study of the technologies responsible for the manufacture of ceramics and the contexts in which manufacturing, use, and dispersal occurred, we gain information about both regional and local social processes, thereby leading to a more comprehensive knowledge of the directions along which objects and ideas moved. The results provide a basis from which to document how the Europeans and their descendants who colonized Mesoamerica and the borderlands changed aspects of Native American societies, and in the process were themselves transformed.

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Production, exchange and consumption of glazed wares in New Spain: formation of a database of elemental composition through INAA (1.18 MB)
by Patricia Fournier and M. James Blackman

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Submitted 09/06/2007 by:
Patricia Fournier (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia)
pat_fournier@yahoo.com

M. James Blackman (NMNH-Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC)
blackmanj@si.edu

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