BOWLS BETWEEN THE BAYS: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CERAMIC TRADE AND CONSUMPTION ON THE UPPER DELMARVA PENINSULA

Abstract

Ceramics have been produced for thousands of years, and for much of that time innovators have attempted to invent new vessel forms and methods of decoration to create a unique product that would be appealing to the consumer. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries comprised a period of booming consumerism, as evidenced by the number of locales of production dedicated to the innovation of new styles and decorative techniques applied to contemporaneous ceramic types. While the Navigation Acts limited colonial trade solely to Britain, colonists could import many types of ceramics from Britain, even those that were imported into Britain from the European mainland. Therefore, the colonists had an abundance of options to choose from when it came to vessel type and decoration. However, I and other archaeologists of the region have noticed a distinct separation between the ceramic types found in different parts of the greater Chesapeake region. As a result, I wished to see if a separation of types existed on the upper Delmarva Peninsula due to the trade routes used to ship these goods to each site of interest and, if distinct patterns exist, how these patterns are related to social and communal consumer preferences and ritualistic emulation of regional high-status individuals and families. 22 archaeological sites – 10 located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and 12 located in Delaware – dating to the late-seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been selected for study based on factors related to the material culture and the overall integrity of the site. Imported ceramic types from these sites will be examined to assess the region for patterns related to the trade and consumption of specific ceramic types over others. This thesis attempts to answer two distinct questions: how did patterns of trade and consumer behavior vary between the Chesapeake Bay region and Delaware River region during the eighteenth century? Also, how have these patterns associated with trade or differences in regional consumer behaviors and preferences resulted in the distribution of types across the Delmarva Peninsula and established associations of certain types with the ceramic assemblages from sites of one region over another? While similar studies into the comparison of ceramic types have been performed on individual sites and more closely related sites in the region, none have been so comprehensive to assess the entire upper Delmarva Peninsula in this way, and few have taken the approach of trade, consumer preference, and emulation in an attempt to explain the patterns in ceramic types in the region. While this thesis contributes to the study of the archaeological record of the Delmarva Peninsula, a peripheral region that is chronically overlooked and understudied during this period, it establishes a framework through which differences in the regional distribution of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ceramic types based on consumerism and emulation can be explained.