Sharing ceramic manufacturing processes: A technological and petrographic study on ceramic production and exchange between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (350–1200 CE)

Abstract

This study investigates the production and distribution of ceramics across the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico during the Ceramic Age (ca. 800–500 BCE to 1500 CE). The ceramic assemblage from El Frances, Dominican Republic, is analyzed and compared with five other sites from Puerto Rico (Hacienda Grande, Tecla, La Gallera, Dorado-42, Sorcé). Petrographic analysis clarifies the origin of raw materials and the preparation of the clay body. Results show an initial phase (ca. 350–900 CE) of Saladoid ceramics at El Frances that appears to be similar to the Puerto Rican sites in the processing and the origin of some of the raw clay materials. Between ca. 900 and 1200 CE, evidence from El Frances shows technological change, suggesting a process of socio-cultural transformation. This change entailed the production of very coarse and heterogenous ceramic bodies and the use of locally accessible clays originating from metamorphic parent rocks. The heterogeneous paste preparation is comparable with other contemporaneous sites such as El Flaco and La Luperona, located in the central north, and El Cabo on the east coast of Hispaniola. This study adds insights to manufacturing practices in ceramic production across a long-term period and shows evidence of the occurrence of similar “ways of doing” between distant communities across Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.