Artefact of the Week Series: Whiteware for the Weary

Just as in the 2024 excavation, ceramics (such as whiteware!) have been a common find across the test pits excavated on Turpin’s Island during the first week of the 2025 season. 

Whiteware (also referred to as white earthenware or white refined earthenware) is a type of ceramic characterized by its fine white fabric and uncoloured or slightly blueish glaze. It can be differentiated from creamware and pearlware by its true white colour, which is obtained by using only the most basic quantity of cobalt oxide in the glaze or chemically whitening the clay with cobalt before finishing with a transparent glaze.

Fig. 1 The whiteware sherd found in test pit 45

Developed by Josiah Wedgwood, the same potter credited with the invention of creamware (1760’s-1820’s) and pearlware (1780’s-1820’s), this type of ceramic is thought to have been created as a concurrent to English Bone China porcelain (and is still produced to this day!). Although whiteware production began in Great Britain (especially Scotland) around 1805, archaeological examples are uncommon in North American sites before 1810 to 1820.

This specific example, found in test pit 45 (adjacent to a previously unexcavated feature, a conical rock pile), is decorated with a blue transfer-printed flower motif. This discovery indicates that the feature might date back to the 1810s-1820s at the earliest, around the start of the Newfoundlander occupation of Turpin’s Island.

This particular test pit was far from plentiful regarding artifacts, so finding this piece of whiteware was truly a welcome sight. Whiteware for the weary indeed!

Fig. 2 Raphaëlle and Rosalie working hard on test pit 45

Reference:

Labonté-Leclerc, Melissa, and Delphine Léouffre. 2016. “Whiteware”. In “Identifier la céramique au Québec” edited by Laetitia Métreau. Special edition, Les Cahiers d’archéologie du CELAT 41 (Série Archéométrie 8) : 237-244.

Author: Rosalie Collette