Historical ceramics include both pottery manufactured in the Americas after the arrival of European conquerors and colonizers, including technological innovations relative to pre-Columbian production, and European, Asian or African ceramic production introduced to the American continent as a result of global commercial processes beginning in the last decade of the fifteenth century. This pottery production includes burnished and glazed earthenware, majolica, Oriental and European porcelain, European and American fine earthenware, and stoneware. The time period of historical ceramics spans from the late fifteenth century to the twentieth century.
The study of these ceramic materials has been addressed mainly by archaeology, although they can also be analyzed from the perspective of history or art history, among other disciplines. Research on historical ceramics has included dating and chronological sequences, typological proposals, compositional analyses, distribution patterns and consumption trends; analysis of trade networks, techno-historical and symbolic studies, identification of use-wear traces and aspects of daily life, to name a few areas of study. Through all this research, it has been possible to access various dimensions of American societies during the viceregal and republican periods.
The symposium “Research on Historical Ceramics in the Americas. New Data, New Results,” within the framework of the 59th International Congress of Americanists to be held at the Pontifical Bolivarian University in Medellín, Colombia, in July 2027, aims to offer a space to present work on historical ceramics in the American continent resulting from recent studies, progress on ongoing research, or final products of undergraduate and graduate theses, that reflect the current state reached by studies of these ceramic materials in the Americas. Researchers from different disciplinary fields (archaeology, history, archaeometry, art history, among others) are therefore invited to submit paper proposals addressing studies of historical ceramics in the American continent, as well as related topics.
