Archaeometric Study of Kentucky Redware and Bricks at the 1820s Historic Ingels Family Bourbon County Farm and Pottery Site

Carr-Trebelhorn, Julia; O'Malley, Nancy, Assistant Director, University of KY Museum of Anthropology; Eitel, Richard, University of KY Department of Materials Science

This archeometric study analyzed local clay deposits at the Ingels Family Farm, settled in the Early Nineteenth Century in Bourbon County Kentucky. The redware pottery made on site was bartered and sold in the region, and the clay deposits were also used to make the bricks that constructed the 1820 Ingels family residence, still extant as of May 2026. Numerous materials characterization techniques including XRD, XRF, DTA/TGA, Spectroscopy, wet chemical analysis, and SEM were used to determine the characteristics of the local clay deposit and the identifying characteristics of the redware. The study also tested the wares to determine an approximate firing range, which was consistent with the requirements of low-to-mid fired earthenware. This study was done using archaeological materials from a previous archaeological investigation of the farm, but new material was added with the assistance the USDA Soil Survey Office in Kentucky, who drilled core samples for the project in Spring 2012.

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