Spanish Colonial Networks of Production: Earthenware Storage Vessels from The Peruvian Wine Industry
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Spanish Colonial Networks of Production: Earthenware Storage Vessels from The Peruvian Wine Industry Nicola Sharratt 1
& Susan
D. deFrance 2 & P. Ryan Williams 3
Published online: 11 January 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Following Spanish conquest, wine and brandy production flourished in the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru. Alcohol products both served local demand and were shipped to high altitude mining centers. Wine was fermented and stored in tinajas, large earthenware ceramic vessels. Reporting analyses of paste composition of 70 tinajas using portable XRF technology, we examine the production of these vessels. Our results suggest that tinaja manufacture was localized in Moquegua but that valley wineries participated in varied production systems. Our analysis indicates that more sophisticated sourcing methods would refine the relationship among tinaja pastes, locally available clays, and production networks. Keywords Andean South America . Viticulture . Ceramics . Compositional analyses
Introduction Spanish colonization of the Americas was accompanied by dramatic transformations of regional landscapes for the production of agricultural products deemed necessary for the colonial endeavor. One industrial crop that had a profound effect on agricultural terrain and that also fostered the development of elaborate infrastructure and associated material culture was the introduction of Old World vine stock to the Americas to produce wine and brandy (Brown 1986; Cushner 1980; Rice 1996a, 1996b, 2011, 2013; Weaver 2015, 2018). The Spanish efforts to establish vineyards were fueled by a desire for wine for both everyday consumption and for Catholic religious purposes (Rice 1995). Among the geographic regions where grapes thrived was the Central
* Nicola Sharratt [email protected]
1
Department of Anthropology, Georgia State University, PO Box 3998, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
2
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
3
Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
652
International Journal of Historical Archaeology (2019) 23:651–677
Andean coastal plain and low elevation valleys in the modern regions of Peru and Chile. In this area, wine and brandy products also became valued commodities that were shipped to high elevation mining centers, particularly near the Spanish silver mine in Potosí in modern Bolivia. One specific locale where wine and brandy were highly lucrative commodities was in the Moquegua Valley of far southern Peru where 130 wineries were established in a narrow, fertile river valley (Rice and Smith 1989). Here, wine commodities served both local need and the booming high elevation mining industry. The large-scale commercial production of alcoholic beverages also fostered the production of an array of locally produced material goods needed for wine production. In this article, we examine the local system of production associated with large earthenware ceramic vessels known as tinajas that were u
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