Last weekend, I discovered an earthenware Iberian storage jar at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Massachusetts. The antiques dealer, who I purchased it from told me that he recently found the jar at a yard sale in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He also said the yard sale took place at "
...an old home" - however, he could not provide any further information.
It appeared to be one heck of a yard sale, too - a lot of what the dealer brought to the flea market came from this sale. Additionally, I also purchased a huge nineteenth-century hand-blown glass pan from this dealer, which he said was also found at the yard sale in Amesbury. He told me the pan was being used outside as a bird bath in the backyard. Coincidentally, that is also how he was selling the pan - the pan had been married to a twentieth-century ceramic bird bath base; although, I told the dealer he could keep the base, as I did not really have a use for it. I believe the pan was made in the Midwest in the mid-nineteenth-century - and, it may have been made in Ohio.
My 4-Year-Old Niece, Alexis with the Iberian Storage Jar
She Says, "It's Heavy!"
According to 'Encyclopedia Britannica,'
The Iberian Peninsula, which is located in southwestern Europe is formed primarily by the three countries of Andorra, Spain and Portugal, and it contains small portions of France and the British owned territory of Gibraltar, as well. The Iberian Peninsula covers approximately 225,000 square miles, and forms the southwestern-most corner of the European continent.
The peninsula's name derives from its ancient inhabitants, whom the Greeks called Iberians, probably for the Ebro (Iberus), the peninsula's second longest river.
The Pyrenees Mountain range forms an effective land barrier in the northeast, separating the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, and in the south of Gibraltar, the Peninsula is separated from North Africa by the narrow Straight of Gibraltar.
The Atlantic Ocean washes the northern, western and southwestern coasts, and the Mediterranean Sea washes the southern and eastern shores."
Iberian storage jars, like the one I discovered last weekend at Todd's Farm Flea Market, have been recovered in seventeenth and eighteenth-century archaeological contexts all over the American east coast. For example, I have studied Iberian storage jars, which have been professionally removed by archaeologists at sites in Maine, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Salem, Massachusetts, Charlestown, Massachusetts, Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The forms of these type of jars also vary with different periods of production (see below); however, what makes the jar that I discovered unusual is the fact that it was not recovered from an archaeological site - and, instead, it was discovered in an old home in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Note: These are the only photos shown in this article, where a camera flash was used - a camera flash was used for these three pictures as-a-result of the photographs being taken at night.
Spanish Iberian Storage Jar Found at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Mass.
Dealer Said He Recently Purchased it at a Yard Sale in Amesbury, Mass.
Unusual To Find Such an Object Outside of an Archaeological Context in New England
Circa 1620-1800
Measures 11 1/4" in Length
Another View of the Jar
Another View of the Jar
Iberian Storage Jars Found in Maine
According to the 'Plymouth Archaeology Rediscovery Project,' "
Iberian storage jars, also called Spanish olive jars, are one of the most widely occurring Spanish ceramics to be found in the New World having been used by the French and English, as-well-as the Spanish. These vessels were (reportedly) used to transport, wine, olive oil, olives, honey and fish.
Generally, Iberian storage jars were either globular with a round or pointed bottom. They have been discovered from Pemaquid, Maine in an eighteenth-century context and from the circa 1628-1676 Plymouth Colony trading house at Cushnoc in Augusta, Maine."
Nevertheless, two Iberian storage jars, which match the form of the jar that I found, were also discovered in 1971 off the coast of Maine by a scuba diver named, Norman Bakeman.
According to a book written by William F. McNeil, '
Visitors to Ancient America: The Evidence for European and Asian Presence in America Prior to Columbus,' "Norman Bakeman was scuba diving in search of old bottles or anything else of value, which may have been thrown overboard from a ship in the Bay of Castine, when at a depth of about forty-feet, he recovered two Iberian storage jars. They rested on the mud bottom about fifty-feet apart, one partially buried, the other on the surface. For a while they were on display at the University of Maine."
Bakeman's jars were also discussed in the magazine, '
Science Frontiers,' where an article was published in September of 1977. The article compares the objects to ancient Iberian jars produced during the Roman period; although, the jars are also compared to similar formed Iberian objects that were made in Spain, and used as olive jars in the eighteenth-century.
Note: A friend of mine, who lives in southern Maine, happens to own a small collection of Iberian storage jars in various shapes and sizes that he has discovered all over Maine. Many of the objects are accompanied with stories, too, but none of the jars were found in any type of archaeological context. Although, some were found in early contexts of ownership, and the rest were discovered in antique shops and junk shops in Maine.
Sketching of the Spanish Iberian Storage Jars Recovered by Norman Bateman
These Jars Were Found Submerged Off the Coast of Maine
Circa 1620-1800
The Style Matches the Form of the Jar that I Found at Todd's Farm Flea Market
Photo Courtesy: Science Frontiers, Issue No. 1, September 1977
Iberian Storage Jar Recovered in Boston
Yesterday, I visited Boston City Archaeologist, Joseph Bagley at the Boston City Archaeology Department in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Joe had told me about an intact jar in one of his collections that is a near-match to the jar that I discovered.
He told me that his jar was recovered from a barrel-privy at the Paul Revere (1735-1818) House (built 1680) in Boston, which was professional excavated by archaeologists in 2011-2012. He said the privy was actually made with a wooden barrel that was intentionally sunk or submerged into the ground. He also said that this is an uncommon type of privy to find in Boston today.
Unfortunately, the privy dates to a later period from when Paul Revere owned the house, circa 1770-1800; however, the history of this Iberian jar is also a mystery today since it does not seem to relate to any of the other artifacts that it was surrounded with in the privy.
I examined all of these artifacts yesterday - the bulk of the objects included nineteenth-century New England-made glass, imported nineteenth-century European glass, locally produced red earthenware flower pots, nineteenth-century glass medical devices, nineteenth-century English yellowware and nineteenth-century European transfer-decorated ceramics.
According to the archaeology report, written by the Public Archaeology Laboratory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, "
Seventy-four artifacts were selectively sampled (removed) from the barrel-privy. The majority of the assemblage comprised ceramics dating from the first-half of the nineteenth-century, consisting of hand-painted and transfer-printed whitewares (1820-1860), a yellowware bowl fragment (after 1830), and molded and transfer-printed ironstone (after 1845).
The one exception to the mid-to-late-nineteenth-century profile of the ceramic assemblage is a complete Iberian Globe-and-Carrot-type storage jar dating from about 1620-1800. This type of jar was used for transporting olives, oil and honey.
According to archaeologist and author, Ivor Noel Hume, these types of jars have been found on the Spanish shipwreck 'Vega,' which sunk in the Caribbean in 1639, and they have also been found on the shipwreck 'Elizabeth' dating to 1839 in western Australia."
A large collection of Spanish olive jars in various forms were also recovered on a shipwreck that happened in the Tortugas in the Caribbean in 1622. The remains of this shipwreck were published in the 2012 edition of Ceramics in America.
Despite all of this information, the history of the Iberian storage jar that was found at the Paul Revere House remains a mystery today - it is unclear why this whole object emerged from a mid-to-late-nineteenth-century privy. Nonetheless, it was also possibly a result of this object having been curated or re-purposed from its original use, and kept as a keepsake or used for another household purpose.
Interestingly, the Paul Revere House was owned by John Loring from 1803-1833, and he rented the property to James Crawley, who is believed to have used the building as a boardinghouse for '
sailors.' Could this jar have been owned by a sailor, who lived in this home, and possibly traveled to an area where these jars were available in the nineteenth-century? Afterwards, the home was inherited by John Loring's daughter, Lydia, and she continued to rent the property as a tenement house, circa 1833-1867.
Note: This first picture shows the Iberian storage jar that I discovered at the flea market (left) with the Iberian storage jar that was recovered at the Paul Revere House (right). I have also shown the jar that was recovered at the Paul Revere House with some of the larger artifacts that it was found with in the barrel-privy.
(Left) Spanish Iberian Storage Jar Found at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Mass.
Reportedly Recently Purchased at a Yard Sale in Amesbury, Mass.
Circa 1620-1800
Measures 11 1/4" in Length
(Right) Spanish Iberian Storage Jar Recovered from a Privy at the Paul Revere House in Boston
The Privy Dated from the Mid-to-Late 19th Century
'Why' This Object was Found in the Privy is Currently a Mystery
Circa 1620-1800
Measures Approximately 11" to 11 1/2" in Length
Artifacts Recovered From 19th Century Privy
Some of the Artifacts Recovered from the 19th Century Privy
The Privy was Uncovered at the Paul Revere House in Boston in 2011-212
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, Mass.
More of the Artifacts Recovered from the 19th Century Privy
The Privy was Uncovered at the Paul Revere House in Boston in 2011-212
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, Mass.
Iberian Storage Jar Recovered in Charlestown, Mass.
For a comparison: this is a seventeenth-century Iberian storage jar, which was recovered in Charlestown, Massachusetts at the site of James Garrett's home, circa 1635-1660. This is a good example that shows how this form varied in different periods of production (17th century versus 18th century), but the form also varied during the same period, as well.
According to an article written by Massachusetts archaeologist, Steven Pendry, 'Merchants and Artisans in Colonial Charlestown, Massachusetts,' "Archaeological evidence from the house cellar of the (seventeenth-century) Charlestown merchant and ship master, James Garrett provides important information about the daily life and business activities of the earliest Massachusetts Bay colony traders. James Garrett was one of several merchants and sea captains from the hamlet of Wapping, in Stepney, England, who settled in Charlestown during the Great Migration.
17th Century Spanish Iberian Storage Jar
Recovered in a Circa 1635-1660 Archaeological Context in Charlestown, Mass.
Recovered at the Jame Garrett Site, a Merchant's Home in Charlestown, Mass.
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, Mass.
A Comparison of Iberian Storage Jars
Three Iberian Storage Jars Pictured Together
(Left) Found at Todd's Farm Flea Market in Rowley, Mass.
Measures 11 1/4" in Length
(Middle) Recovered in Charlestown, Mass.
(Right) Recovered at the Paul Revere House in Boston
Photo Courtesy: Boston Archaeology Department - West Roxbury, Mass.
Another Look at All Three Iberian Storage Jars
Another Look at All Three Iberian Storage Jars
Please Stay Tuned...Much More to Come...
