Geochemical Analysis of Catawba Ceramics (2011)
Undergraduate: Rosanna Crow
Faculty Advisor: Vin Steponaitis
Department: Anthropology
The purpose of this research is to examine the chemical composition of clays and pottery fragments from Colonial and modern Catawba Indian sites in order to determine if the same clay pits have been exploited for ceramic purposes over the past 250 years.
The Research Laboratories of Archaeology is currently conducting research on archaeological sites left by the historic Catawba Nation. They have been producing pottery for at least 400 years; Catawba pottery is one of the oldest continuing art forms in the Carolinas. The first portion of my project will analyze raw, unfired clays and fired pottery fragments from the clay source used by modern Catawba potters. These modern clays will be compared to archaeological clays and pottery fragments excavated from two contemporaneous sites that date to the 1780s.
In order to determine if the clay pits used by modern Catawba potters are the same as those used during the Colonial period, two differing analytical methods will be employed. The raw unfired clays from the modern clay pits and those found at the two archaeological sites will be analyzed using both X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction. The former technique provides compositional data on elements, and the latter on minerals. The fired pottery fragments from archaeological contexts will be evaluated using XRF only, as firing destroys the crystalline structure of clays, making XRD less useful.
Once the geochemical analysis is complete, the data will be evaluated in order to answer the two main research questions: (1) Were the historic Catawba using the same clay pits the modern Catawba in order to produce ceramics; and (2) Is the raw clay found within the archaeological context the same clay used in the archaeological pottery?