Ceramic Production in Early Hispanic California: Craft, Economy, and Trade on the Frontier of New Spain

Foreword

Foreword California has always been a land of contrasts, both internally and when compared with other areas of North America. The early Spanish explorers and settlers remarked how like their homeland it was. Iberian agriculture and architecture adapted to the California coastal environment with ease. The populous and relatively peaceful native population contrasted sharply with tribal groups encountered in the interior provinces. But in spite of its uniqueness, California’s coastal location allowed it to play a role in the developing world economy at an earlier date than Texas or the southwest through maritime trade. California Indians in general proved to be such quick and enthusiastic learners of European skills that the Spanish government sponsored the establishment of various Hispanic craftsmen in the missions in the 1790s to facilitate further training in a wide variety of occupations. Of these, potters proved to be one of the most useful. Pottery, that all-important human cultural material since Neolithic times, had a rich history of development on the Iberian Peninsula. Production was transferred directly from Seville to such New World locations as Puebla and Mexico City and then diffused by trade to the markets of the northern frontier. With the establishment of the mission communities, ceramic use and production became an important part of the process of Hispanization of the local neophytes. While a few tribes to the far south already had ceramic traditions based on techniques of coiling and paddle-and-anvil shaping, pottery use was a new experience for the coastal tribes north of the Los Angeles Basin. The potter’s wheel xx Foreword was completely unknown in the New World before European contact. The introduction of pottery seems to have been accompanied by a corresponding decline in the variety and use of basketry, which had earlier been used for many of the same purposes as ceramic vessels. Ceramic bricks and tiles also revolutionized the architecture and water management of Spanish California. Pottery clays result from the decomposition of feldspars from the granite and gneiss which are found in three-quarters of the world to form hydrated aluminum silicates that are plastic in nature. Such clays are absent only from sandy deserts or coral islands. While not unknown as a sculpting material earlier, pottery became economically advantageous in the first sedentary farming communities. As fragile substances, pottery vessels were best suited to sedentary societies where clay and fuels for firing were present. Vessel shapes were already present in stone bowls and gourds. In this respect, early ceramic containers were copies (skeuomorphs ) of vessels made of other earlier materials. Once fired, ceramics were impervious to water or heat, making boiling more efficient, liquid storage easier, and brewing possible. They became cheap, common, and indispensable to human culture. This volume makes important new contributions to the study of Hispanic California in a number of ways. Drawing on a rich knowledge of locally made and imported ceramics, the authors make major contributions to our understanding of social change and economics. Encompassing the research and observations of a number of leading archaeologists specializing in the Hispanic period of Alta California, the contributions provide perspectives from the entire length of the province; from the missions, presidios, and pueblos; and from the global to the site-specific in details. Some chapters deal with traditional classification, providing us with useful time markers at archaeological sites. Other chapters focus on form as a reflection of function. Two eminent archaeological scientists and several archaeologists using cutting-edge techniques of chemistry and physics break new ground in revealing information about source, manufacture, and trade in early California. The sophistication of their techniques makes relevant contributions toward informing the historical context. Two other important chapters differ from past site-specific archaeological research. A master potter provides an insider’s perspective on various collections and his own experiments in duplicating historic vessels from local clays. He is uniquely qualified to answer detailed questions Foreword xxi of production technology and sophistication. A second chapter explores in detail the firing process and what we know about Hispanic kilns and details the experimental results of firing in a variety of ways. As a result of their research, we now know a great deal more about ceramic forms and the techniques used in manufacture through the process of replication . We better understand the complex skills of the potter from the clay selection process through the firing of the vessels. The replicas produced can now...