The Virginia Earthenwares Project: Characterizing 17th-Century Earthenwares by Electronic Image Analysis

Abstract

This study employs electronic image analysis to characterize and identify 17th-century, Virginia-made earthenware ceramics. Digitized microscopic images of pottery from five different archaeologically discovered 17th-century production sites are examined, and the grain-size characteristics of the wares are reported. The potential of electronic image analysis as a tool for the study of archaeological ceramics is discussed.