Artifacts and Eras of Occupation
Pottery is a major clue for archaeologists as to when a site was occupied. It also can tell us about foodways and culture, or about economics and trade networks. It even tells us about symbols, status, and power in a society. Here are a few examples of typical assemblages from different eras in which the New Orleans area was occupied, with annotations identifying the items.
People have been making and using pottery in southeastern Louisiana for at least 3000 years. Until European arrival and colonization, all local pottery was hand-made earthenware, meaning that it was fired at a low temperature. Over time, the ways that the clays were prepared changed, as did the typical decorations applied on pottery vessels. The image here illustrates some pottery of the Tchefuncte culture, the earliest pottery producing peoples of the New Orleans area.
A mix of pottery types marks the era of French arrival in the New Orleans area, with Indigenous shell-tempered pottery, often marked with incised or engraved decoration, wares produced in France and in other European colonial centers, and occasionally even Chinese porcelain, which was still rare and highly valued.
During the Spanish era, there were major changes in where people got their pottery in the Americas. While French pottery was still plentiful in New Orleans, pottery vessels from Spain and its colonial holdings in Mexico and the Caribbean also become more typical. Then, beginning around the 1780s, more and more pottery was imported from England to places like New Orleans, until this becomes almost the only thing found on sites of the late 1700s.
By the time of the Louisiana Purchase, most pottery found in New Orleans, and anywhere in the U.S., was coming from England. Abundant supplies of factory-made wares and rapidly changing fashions meant that there was a wide array of colorful decorations used on pottery throughout much of this period. This was the heyday of the English transfer printed pottery that is still widely collected today.
By the time of the Civil War, the U.S. had developed its own pottery industry, but much of what was used on a daily basis in New Orleans was still produced in England, or, for wealthier households, in Continental porcelain factories. But styles had shifted, so that more often the typical plates, saucers, cups, and bowls found in homes were monochrome white, sometimes with molded designs.
By the turn of the century, in a typical New Orleans household, you might find both English and American-made tableware, including some decorated with overglaze decaling, an innovation from the end of the 1800s. However, many poor and working glass households used pottery that was from second hand sources, so it is common to see an eclectic mix of earlier pottery in collections from the twentieth century too.