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The ceramic assemblage recovered to date from the Emanuel Point Ship includes coarse earthenwares of the olive jar variety, lead-glazed earthenwares, tin enamelwares, and colonial Aztec wares. In addition, brick or galley tile and what may be a portion of cooking brazier were found. Most of the materials in the ceramic assemblage recovered during excavations were stained by the dark tannin-bearing water and sediments. However, they slowly became identifiable over time after soaking in a solution of hydrogen peroxide. A study of the collection by Debra Wells, who is writing her Master's thesis on the topic, has typed the ceramics by attributes (color, paste, temper, coatings, shape and thickness), and compared them with similar examples from other archaeological sites to suggest a chronological range for the wrecking of the ship.
Olive Jars
The ceramic assemblage is predominately characterized by fragments of Spanish coarse earthenware of the olive jar variety. Descendent from Mediterranean wine amphorae, olive jars (known as botijas, botijuelas, and botijas peruleras) were used as containers for wine, olive oil, vinegar, honey, and other foodstuffs. They are frequently found on Spanish colonial sites, and are especially common on Spanish shipwrecks. Depletion of wood resources in Southern Europe, caused by centuries of shipbuilding and domestic usage, required an equally stable and versatile alternative to the wooden cask or barrel. Highly portable, and shaped in such a way that they could easily be stacked in the hold of a ship, olive jars had the benefits of strength and the ability to be reused. On transoceanic voyages these storage vessels served a dual function of cargo and ballast; once the voyage was complete, the jars could be emptied, washed, and refilled for a return voyage.
Fig. 54. The Spanish Olive Jar was a common form of ceramic container for olive oil, wine, and other foodstuffs.
Storing liquids in earthenware containers can result in seepage, as the coarse, low-fired wares tended to absorb their contents. One method of solving this problem was to coat the interior of the vessel with a waterproof substance. Many olive jar sherds from the Emanuel Point Ship were found to be coated on the interior with two different kinds of sealant: a clay slip on some, and pine pitch on others (Wells 1994). Most of the sherds exhibit a white effluorescence on the exterior surface, which may have been a result of the unfired vessel having been washed with a saltwater slurry and then fired, causing the calcium within the clay to rise to the surface.
Fig. 55. Olive Jar interiors were frequently coated with pine resin to prevent liquids from seeping out of these porous ceramic containers.
The traditional typology of olive jars is the work of Goggin (1960), who divided the containers into three distinct styles (early, middle, and late), based on vessel form and rim shape. Goggin also was able to establish separate date ranges for the different styles. Based on paste characteristics and sherd thickness, most of the Emanuel Point olive jar sherds fit within Goggin’s Middle Style; however, based on rim style, they appear to be of an early variety that has since been noted by more recent researchers on shipwrecks of the mid-16th century (Marken 1994; Avery 1993, 1994). The rim shapes correspond to what Marken has defined as Type 2, examples of which have been found on the St. John’s Bahamas wreck (1500-1550) and the Padre Island, Texas wrecks (1554) (Skowronek 1987; Marken 1994: 50-57).
Fig. 56. Profiles of these Olive Jar rims depict an inverted teardrop form characteristic of the early Middle Style.
A recent comparative study of olive jar rim shapes from shipwrecks, which are securely dated if their year of sinking is known, documents, for the first time, a gradual change in rim styles over time (Avery 1993). Using examples of rimsherds from the St. Johns wreck (1500-1550), the Padre Island wrecks (1554), the Spanish Armada wrecks (1588), Rosario (1590), San Martín (1618), an unidentified wreck believed to be from the 1622 fleet, Concepción (1641), the 1715 fleet wrecks, Tolosa and Guadalupe (1724), and the 1733 fleet wrecks, Avery has recorded the transition from an early to mid 16th-century inverted teardrop rim shape, to a curved, triangular-inprofile rim shape that begins in the 1580s, and evolves through the 17th century to an elongated, “question-mark” shape, culminating in a fat, donut rim profile.
Table XI. Chronological Chart of Middle Style Olive Jar Rim Profiles from Shipwrecks *
* Courtesy of George E. Avery (1993) 1588
Compared with Avery’s chronological outline, rimsherds from the Emanuel Point collection unlike those from sites dated 1588 and later; rather they are similar in profile to examples from the St. Johns and Padre Island sites, which date from the early to middle of the 16th century. This shape (Marken’s Type 2), however, has turned up on the wrecks of the Spanish Armada, but it represents an isolated example among the predominance of Marken Type 3 Middle Style rims (Martin 1979; Marken 1994). And in turn, there are some examples of thicker, Middle Style rims in the Padre Island, aside from the Type 2 shape (Skowronek 1987; Olds 1976). Based on his research, Avery suggests that the date for the Middle Style olive jar can be pushed back to 1554; he is also attempting to discover a connection between rim shape and container usage (Avery 1994).
Fig. 57. This Olive Jar, found at the early Spanish townsite of Concepción de la Vega (1495-1562), Dominican Republic, may be an example of the type of jars that were carried on the Emanuel Point Ship (photo courtesy of George Avery).
Analysis of body sherds in the Emanuel Point collection indicates that the ship carried, in addition to early Middle Style jars, another variety of container with thinner body walls. The thin-walled sherds have a reddish paste, large quartz inclusions, a clay slip on the interior, and effluorescence on the exterior. They are probably from an Early Style vessel, since vertical rather than horizontal rilling patterns (the impressions left by a potter’s fingers or tools) are evident on several partially reconstructed sherds. However, no handle remnants or breakage scars appear on the portions thus far recovered. Avery suggests that the Early style container defined by Goggin is not of the Olive Jar variety but rather a form of cantina (Avery 1994, pers. comm.). Known as a cantimplora, an early style ceramic vessel with handles descended from the Near Eastern pilgrim bottle, this portable container fell into disuse in mid-16th century (Lister and Lister 1987:132).
Lead-Glazed Earthenwares
The second group of ceramics recovered from Emanuel Point is lead-glazed coarse earthenware. Sherds of this group include two diagnostic types, Melado and El Morro. Date ranges of usage for these two types have been established in archaeological contexts at St. Augustine and Santa Elena as well as other colonial sites within the Caribbean area (Deagan 1987:28). Melado (1490-1550), a lead-glazed pottery with a white underslip, is distinctively honey colored and is associated with Spanish colonial sites from the early to mid-sixteenth century. Seven Melado sherds are represented in the collection; a handle fragment with an apple-green glaze variant compares favorably with a similar sherd in the Lister type collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History. El Morro ware (1550-1770) is characterized by a thick, shiny green or rust colored glaze and has some temper inclusions in the ceramic paste. Thirteen sherds of this type are represented in the collection.
Fig. 58. Lead-glazed earthenwares of the Melado variety were popular from 1490 to 1550.
Tin Enamelwares
The third group of ceramics found at Emanuel Point consists of tin-glazed enamelware, first introduced during the fifteenth century in Italy, and which became vastly popular throughout Europe. Referred to as maiolica (Italian) or majolica (Iberian), faience (French), and delft (Dutch and British), the original Italian form had a thick white tin slip, was hand painted (usually with a floral or geometric design) and overglazed with a clear glossy finish (coperta), then fired. Two of the four enamelware sherds from the shipwreck have been tentatively identified. One appears to be of a style known as Sevilla Blue-on-White or Blue-on-Blue, with a light-gray background color and a dark-blue sprig and flower design, and dating between 1492 and 1600 (Deagan 1987:62-4). Another sherd appears to be from a Yayal Blue-on- White bacín container (utility basin or chamber pot) with a blue on white design on the interior base surface.
Fig. 59. Majolica ceramics of the Seville Blue-on-Blue variety date between 1492 and 1600.
Aztec Ware
A unique group of ceramics were collected close together in the stern section of the ship. This group consists of six sherds of postclassic Aztec wares. The type is called negro grafitto sobre rojo pulido (Noguera 1975:187), and is characterized by a buff paste with a highly burnished red-to-orange slipped exterior, frequently seen with graphite-based paint applied in geometric patterns. The type also is called Aztec IV to mark its sequence in the progression of Mesoamerican pottery traditions (Pasztory 1983). The first sherd to be found at the shipwreck has a geometric design, consisting of black zigzag lines and dots. This motif occurs in various Aztec art forms, but, to date, no pottery parallels have been found to suggest the size, shape, or function of the container represented by this sherd.
Two curious, molded effigy sherds, one with a downward grimacing mouth filled with outlined teeth and surrounding facial decoration, the other with a molded left eye and cheek with facial decorations, also appear to be of the Aztec IV tradition. Photographs of the sherds were sent to Dr. Pilar Luna Erreguerena, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, who showed them to her colleague, John Joseph Temple. According to Temple, the molded facial forms, burnished on one side with red to orange color, and unburnished (black) on the interior, were described by Barlow (1951) in relation to a codex made by 16th-century Indian potters from Cuauhtitlán, in the Central Valley of Mexico. Among their wares, the potters fabricated examples that showed the faces of Africans and Spaniards.
Barlow found the codex in the Aubin-Goupil collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris; his interpretation of the codex was that it represented a legal plea by four potters (who were Chicimecan refugees) to the resident Spanish judge in 1564 for reimbursement, since their wares had not been paid for by the local alcalde (mayor), who had ordered them. On the codex, the potters illustrated in color the forms and numbers of the ceramics in question, along with their value in pesos and tomines, completing the document with iconographic portraits of themselves as signatures. Apparently the Cuauhtitlán potters stopped making pottery after a massive epidemic of cocoliztli (plague) occurred in 1576. This information was relayed to historian John de Bry, who happened to be working in the Bibliotheque Nationale. De Bry found the codex, and was able to copy portions containing illustrations of pottery decorated in the shapes of human heads.
Fig. 60. This 1564 Aztec codex depicts pottery in the shape of human heads from the Central Valley of Mexico. From El Códice de los Alfareros de Cuauhtitlán, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Courtesy of John de Bry.
Fig. 61. These remarkable ceramic sherds, depicting a grimacing mouth, eye and cheek bone in relief, are decorated with geometric lines and dots of graphite paint, and were made by Aztec potters.
Three additional Aztec pottery fragments subsequently were found in adjacent excavations at the stern. One is a small fragment which joins the earlier sherd with a grimacing mouth. Whether these examples of colonial native Aztec wares are from Cuauhtitlán, or whether they represent the faces of Africans, as shown on the codex, is not certain. Their enigmatic discovery in the stern of the vessel suggests that the ceramics were not cargo, but belonged to a high-ranking occupant of the ship. According to one Aztec ceramic specialist, wares of this type often were used for ceremonial purposes, as in the consumption of pulque, a fermented Mexican beverage (Thomas Charlton 1995, pers. comm.)
Other Ceramics
A single ceramic fragment of unknown type was recovered early during testing of the ballast mound. Of thick, soft paste, this poorly tempered piece was at first thought to be a portion of a lug handle for a large earthenware storage jar. Alternately, it could represent a portion of one of the legs of a cooking brazier. Its provenience among the ballast raises the possibility that it may have been introduced as debris, along with a load of stones sometime during the sailing career of the Emanuel Point Ship.
Fig. 62. This curious piece of coarse earthenware may have been part of a handle to a large jar, or the foot of a common cooking brazier.
Discussion
Analysis of the ceramic assemblage from the Emanuel Point Ship, and its comparison with that of other dated archaeological sites suggests that the shipwreck may have occurred between 1550 and 1580. Certainly, the discovery of Aztec pottery, previously unreported from a shipwreck context, bears further investigation, as well as comparison with similar examples from terrestrial sites in Mexico, if they exist. However, ceramics can be used for other purposes than to establish a chronology for the site. In the case of the Emanuel Point ceramics, an interesting result of attempts to mend Olive Jar sherds has demonstrated the potential to shed light on the ship’s wrecking process. While cross-mending sherds from various proveniences, a trend seemed to occur in one particular vessel. A partial rim and shoulder was recovered from the outer port footwale, upper body sherds were found inboard, and middle body sherds came from above the keel. Tracking the positions of the cross mends suggests that the jar fell toward the port and broke, depositing the sherds in a linear pattern. Perhaps by tracking patterns such as this, aspects of the ship’s wrecking process can be reconstructed (Wells 1995).
Ceramic Type |
No. of Sherds |
Weight of Sherds |
% of Sherds |
|---|---|---|---|
Olive Jar (unglazed) |
712 |
13,813.2 gr |
92.2% |
| Olive Jar (lead glazed) | 9 |
171.1 gr |
1.1% |
| cantimplora | 10 |
556.9 gr |
1.3% |
| Majolica | 4 |
104 gr |
0.5% |
| El Moro | 13 |
58 gr |
1.7% |
| Melado | 7 |
51.3 gr |
0.9% |
| Aztec | 6 |
126.8 gr |
0.8% |
| Unidentified | 8 |
575 gr |
1.0% |
| Brick | 2 |
588.8 gr |
0.3% |
| Tile | 1 |
134.8 gr |
0.1% |
| Total | 772 |
16,179.9 gr |
100% |