Majolica pottery

Characterization of 15th- 6th Century Majolica Pottery Found on the Canary Islands... 

To assess the provenance of majolica pottery found in the Canary Islands, a sample of 55 sherds was obtained from two sites on Gran Canaria Island La Cueva Pintada (G ldar) and El Antiguo Convento de San Francisco (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). The pottery was studied by X-ray fluorescence, instrumental neutron activation analysis, and X-ray diffraction. The results show one group that matches a reference group from Seville, an assessment that supports the historical record. However, the data also reveal samples whose provenance corresponds to other production centers on the Iberian Peninsula, such as Manises, Barcelona, and, possibly, an unknown Portuguese center. Moreover, it is possible that Italian and Dutch pottery have been identified thereby providing a complexity factor to the historical accounts. 

The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary chemical and mineralogical assessment of majolica pottery found on Gran Canaria sites dating from the 15th—16th centuries as evidence of the important trade that occurred... 

Majolica is an earthenware pottery characterized by a creamy light-buff-colored paste and an opaque white tin-lead glaze coating the entire outer surface of the vessel. However, the most outstanding feature of the majolica pottery perhaps lies in its decoration, being the subject of numerous studies by art historians. Majolica decorations are produced from metallic oxides that always are applied on top of the tin glaze. 

The main objective of the present work is to study the provenance of majolica pottery found on important Gran Canaria Island archaeological sites that have been subject of archaeological research. Furthermore, by means of archaeometric characterization, the role played by the majolica produced in Seville that was documented historically as an import into the Canary Islands, is also assessed. Majolica from different production centers also is considered, thereby adding a complexity factor to the Canary trade relationships panorama in a historical period when, in theory, a very tight control existed over trade with the Americas. 

Data treatment, tin and lead concentrations in majolica pottery production, 383-384 Defixiones. See Curse tablets Deh Luran Plain, ceramic glaze samples for compositional analysis, 424-427,434,436 137,440 Depth profiling, coating samples from Little Lost River Cave, 162-163 Detection limits in LA-ICP-MS protocol testing copper alloy analysis, 341 Wari ceramics elemental analysis, 353-354/... 

Iberian Peninsula, production centers, majolica pottery found on Canary Islands, 384, 385-398 Icelandic Norse-trading site, sulfur materials, simultaneous co-incident x-ray micro-fluorescence and microdiffraction analyses, 204-205 ICP-MS. See Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry ICP-OES. See Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy. 

Iron log ratio transformation, XRF results, majolica pottery origin, 384-385... 

La Cueva Pintada, Gran Canaria Island, majolica pottery archaeological site, 378,379/ LA-ICP-MS (Laser ablation-... 

Lister, F. C. Lister, R, H. Sixteenth Century Majolica Pottery in the Valley of Mexico Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 39 University of Arizona Press Tucson, AZ, 1982. 

Lister, F. C. Lister, R. H. Sixteenth Century Majolica Pottery in the... 

Table II shows the precision and accuracy of the ICP-MS for tiie four lead isotopes b, Pb, and Pb based on measuremmits of the NIST Common Lead Isotopic Standard (SRM 981). For all of die lead isotopes except for b, our necision is under 0.2%, ai our percent error, or accuracy, is roughly 0.2%. This is etqiected, as Pb is the least abundant lead isotope, and in our analyses we measured amounts of ° Pb that w smaller than counts for the other isotopes by qq oximately a frctor of ten. In addititm, previous research used Pb Pb versus b/ Pb to identity clusters of majolica pottery manufactured in different areas 14), and it is with these isotopes that our method has its best precision and accuracy.

Our method for measuring lead isotope ratios in glazed pottery using EDTA extraction followed by ICP-MS has allowed us to study majolica from the northern frontier of New Spain with no apparent destruction to the artifacts. Our results are congruoit with previous research on lead isotope ratios in majolica pottery and our values for Pb/ Pb and Pb/ Pb fell within the range reported for both Spanish and Mexican mrgoUca 14). In addition, our results support previous studies that have cited a few production centers as responsible for supplying the people of New Spain wife majolica. 

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