Accession Number

1986.008.1765

Alternate object names

Pot

Creation Date

circa 1620

Description

Small hole in base. One hinge of handle is broken. Possible water bucket for rationing. Recovered encrusted with large iron pin which caused the small hole in bottom.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

Known as tinaja, the earliest examples of storage jars like these date to the Bronze Age. Throughout the centuries, the Spanish used them to hold water, wine, and other liquids, as well as grains. The wavy lines inscribed on these two jars resembles flowing water, perhaps to identify its contents.

The water marshal managed the ship’s supply of drinking water. Water was as bulky as it was vital and carrying too much of it would limit the ship’s capacity for cargo. At the start of each voyage, the water marshal would buy the freshest water he could, knowing that it would be foul tasting, green with algae, and possibly even brackish by the end of the voyage. He had to dole out the water carefully, providing enough to drink while making sure that there was no waste.

These tinajas are from the wreck site of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, where the water marshal was Pedro Rodriguez. He is described in the ship’s manifest as twenty-six years old, of average height, with a long nose and a “Nazarene” beard. He drowned in the disaster, but the water marshal of the Santa Margarita, Lorenzo Garcia, was saved.
Object Caption (2023):

Bucket
Brass (c.1600)
Gift of Jamestown, Inc.
1986.008.1765

Recovered from the wreck site of the Santa Margarita, this small brass bucket was possibly used by the water marshal for rationing water from a tinaja.