EAA 2018: Abstract

Panamá Viejo was founded in 1519 by the Spanish expeditionary Pedrarias Dávila. At the time, it was the first permanent settlement in the Pacific Ocean, becoming a city by a royal decree in 1521. Shortly after its creation the city became an important base for the trade with Spain. Unfortunately, in 1671, the English pirate Henry Morgan attacked and sacked the city, resulting in a fire that destroyed the entire city. Thus, a new settlement was built a few miles west, which would become the origin of the modern Panama City.
Roja bruñida pottery is a very characteristic typology of ceramic within colonial contexts in America that is distinguished by a red/brownish clay paste with a shiny reddish thin slip. This study accounts for the first archaeometrical characterization of the so-called Roja Bruñida pottery from Panama unearthed in recent archaeological excavations at Panama Viejo and Casco Antiguo. Forty-five ceramics have been characterized by means of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), XRD and SEM. The archaeometrical study of these wares will shed light into the understanding of the technological influence on Panama majolica by European and local potting traditions within the cultural frame of societies in contact in a colonial context. Additionally, the supply of raw materials for the potting industry in colonial Panama is assessed diachronically considering the important historical disrupting episode that eventually ended in the relocation of the city. Larger archaeological and historical implications of this important ceramic in the Spanish colonial market within the region are also assessed.

Pottery; Panama; Colonial; Archaeometry

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Javier Inanez³

Juan Guillermo Martín⁵
Michael D. Glascock⁴
Robert J. Speakman¹
Jaume Buxeda i Garrigós²