Bowl Fragment
date: label: date made
content: 1750 - 1777
notes: label: Description
content: This earthenware bowl fragment was assembled from pieces found at an archeological site at Rosewell plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia. Pottery of this type, sometimes called colonoware, was hand-built and burned in an open fire primarily during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was usually used for cooking, and could be made by anyone with access to clay and fire.
label: Description
content: Archeological evidence suggests that most of the colonoware found on South Carolina plantation sites was made by enslaved Africans for their own use. On Virginia plantations, archeologists debate whether colonoware was made by slaves, by Native Americans for use by slaves, or both. Some colonoware fragments were found at the site of a Pamunkey Indian reservation, near Rosewell plantation suggesting that the local tribe did make this type of ware. Colonoware drops out of the archeological record everywhere by the first decades of the 19th century probably due to plantation reform, such as centralized cooking, and to more readily available iron, a more efficient material for cooking.
label: Description
content: The ruins of Rosewell plantation can be found on the west bank of Carter’s Creek, where it enters the York River. The house, built starting around 1721 by Mann Page I, has been described as the finest example of domestic architecture in Colonial American. Archeologists found this rim shard during the excavation of a trash pit just west of the house from 1957 to 1959.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Food
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Artifact Walls exhibit
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.60.651
label: catalog number
content: 60.651
label: accession number
content: 228677
objectType: label: Object Name
content: ceramic
label: Object Name
content: bowl
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall (on stand): 3 1/8 in x 8 in x 4 in; 7.9375 cm x 20.32 cm x 10.16 cm