INAA characterization of colonial pottery from old havana collections

Since 1990, the Archaeology in Cuba has relied on a very limited analytic capacity, mainly for lacking in resources and of technical basis. The works performed to study ceramic artifacts related with different archaeological contexts have been carried out basically by their morphology, style features, techniques of elaboration, texture or other properties. The aim of the Research Project CUB9397/RB consisted on the application of the Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), as the more frequently used analytic technique for the study of chemical composition in ceramic objects during the last years, in some of the Archaeological researches that are presently in course in Cuba. Some of the commonly found colonial pottery types were analyzed by INAA in order to establish compositional models. Two major types of ceramic ware conformed the main research interests during the first stage of the research on Colonial pottery: the first, samples classified as belonging to several Majolica styles of Spanish and Mexican provenance; and the second type included samples of ordinary pottery that indicated an the presence in Havana of a starting local manufacture trying to follow Spanish traditions