The most interesting and diagnostic artifacts recovered from the excavations are illustrated and described in some detail below.
Ceramics
Indian-Made Earthenwares
The predominant type of locally made pottery is a bone-tempered, low-fired ware which appears to be descended from the ceramics made by peoples of south Texas before the Spanish arrived (Fox et al. 1976:67). This is generally called Goliad ware (Figure 1 lp) when found in a historic context. A few sherds of pottery from other areas, such as the Coastal Bend and east Texas, are often found in mission collections, probably reflecting the presence of Indians from these areas at the mission. Two such sherds (Figure 1 ln, o) found during these excavations have been tentatively identified as Goose Creek Incised ware, made by Indians in the Galveston Bay area (Suhm and Jelks 1962:55).
Imported Earthenwares
The most common imported ceramics on eighteenth-century Spanish sites in the San Antonio area are lead-glazed redware bowls and ollas from Mexico (see Fox 1974). Although numerous variations and subtypes exist, these redwares can be separated into two distinct groups: a thick (.24-.5 inches), sandy paste ware; and a thinner (.08-.06 inches) ware with a finer-textured paste. The latter is often painted with dark brown, cream, and green floral designs. Both types were common in these excavations. Sherds of black-glazed lusterware and wheel-made unglazed ware, some of which bear bands of red ochre paint, were also present. A few sherds of a red burnished ware and a gray slip-painted and burnished ware made in Tonala, Jalisco, were also present (Figure 111). On every Spanish site are found at least a few sherds from large, heavy containers known as olive jars. These generally have a white slip and/or green glaze on one or both surfaces. A few sherds of this type were recovered in the excavations.
Majolica
Deep soup plates, cups, and bowls with a soft, absorbent paste coated with a vitreous, opaque tin enamel were regularly brought to the Spanish establishments in the borderlands. The brightly colored designs on these vessels apparently changed with the fashion of the times and can, in some cases, be used to establish or confirm the date of a deposit within which the sherds are found. Decorative types found in these excavations were as follows:
1) Puebla Polychrome--a distinctive bright blue combines with dark brown/black lacy patterns (Figure 1 lc, d) to make this ceramic design unique and easily recognizable. According to Goggin (1968:180), this type was made during the last half of the seventeenth century. Snow (1965:32) extends the date for this type to 1725. Its presence generally indicates an early deposit in San Antonio, since it appears to have gone out of use in Texas by 1730 (Ivey and Fox 1982).
2) Green-on-cream--the rather careless blue/ green decoration on a cream background suggests these sherds are the type Lister and Lister (1982:28) call Mexico City Green-on-cream. That they were found in the fill of the acequia in Unit EII along with a large fragment of a Puebla Polychrome bowl confirms the early dating of this deposit, since this type continued in use into the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries (Lister and Lister 1982:28).
3) Blue-on-white--one or two shades of blue in floral designs on a creamy white