Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: An XRF Study of the Port Royal Bricks
Abstract
This thesis describes the research undertaken to determine the origins of bricks recovered during the underwater excavations of Port Royal, Jamaica, conducted from 1981-1990. To evaluate where these bricks were made, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was employed to determine their elemental compositions and compare these with artifacts known to have been made in Jamaica.
Studying the bricks in this manner allowed the author to determine that seven of those being analyzed were probably made in Jamaica, while another four at least could have been although the data for these bricks could not support a confident conclusion. In determining the Jamaican origins of bricks from at least one Port Royal building at the intersection of Queen and Lime Streets, it would seem that it was acceptable to build an English-style building in non-English bricks.
Subject
X-ray fluorescencePort Royal
Bricks
XRF
Clay
Jamaica
Red clay pipes
Yabba ware
Architectural tile
17th century
England
Devon ware
Dutch clinker
Clinker bricks
Ballast
Archaeology
Citation
Cochran, Paul Guy (2019). Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: An XRF Study of the Port Royal Bricks. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /188717.