Archaeology Magazine — March-April 2018

68

B

oston city archaeologist Joe Bagley says that when he first saw the sherd, he

honestly had no idea what it was. Although it is one of the largest pottery

fragments uncovered during excavations at the Pierce-Hichborn House in

Boston’s North End, and its decoration is well preserved, neither he nor

anyone on his team had seen anything like it in any similar context. “The combination of red

ceramic with white and green decoration is almost unheard of from New England sites, so

we knew it was something different.” It turned out to be one of the oldest—and surely one

of the most expensive—European ceramics ever found in Boston.

The Pierce-Hichborn House, which is adjacent to the Paul

Revere House, dates to about 1711 , but there were at least two

earlier residences on the site. The first likely belonged to

the carpenter Bartholomew Bernard, who lived there

between 1645 and 1656 , and a later one, that of the

mariner John Jeffs, a resident from 1656 to 1676. But it’s

possible, says Bagley, that the plate was deposited even

earlier by an unknown owner, and that it is associated with

one of Boston’s first European settlers. “We are seeing that

downtown Boston in the early seventeenth century was a

wealthy port with wealthy individuals,” says Bagley, “and that

despite Puritan rules and regulations against conspicuous

wealth, in private homes people showed off their expensive

and highly decorated goods.” While during the eighteenth

century, the ceramic trade was limited almost exclusively to

English, Dutch, and Chinese goods, during the seventeenth

century, many products—especially ceramics—came to

Boston from across Europe, including Germany, Portugal,

the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Italy. Says

Bagley, “Despite the overall dark and dreary impressions

we get from Puritan stories and popular history, ceramics,

glass, and other goods found in Puritans’ homes were often

very bright, colorful, and fancy.”

WHAT IS IT

Sgrafitto slip-decorated

plate

CULTURE

North Italian

DAT E

ca. 1630

MATERIAL

Ceramic

FOUND

Boston, Massachusetts

DIMENSIONS

3.75 inches long,

2.5 inches wide

ARCHAEOLOGY • March/April 2018

ARTIFACT BY JARRETT A. LOBELL