La consommation de l'eau à l'époque moderne : le cas de Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) et le rôle des céramiques

Abstract

How did early modern households manage their domestic water resources ? Eighteenth-century Basse-Terre, in Guadeloupe, is an ideal case study because it had sufficient sources of fresh water and a rudimentary, but efficient, distribution system. Yet the ceramic evidence shows that, even in this favorable setting, most households kept their own water reserves at home, in large coarse earthenware jars. This article focuses on these objects and on all the other ceramics used for fetching, collecting, storing, or purifying water. This was a chore often left to enslaved female servants, and the types of objects that were used for doing so—such as recycled sugar drip jars—seem to reflect that reality. Beyond Basse-Terre, historical evidence suggests that water ceramics existed in French early modern society as well, and that households in France also took steps to improve the quality of their drinking supply.

Keywords

• historical archaeology
• material culture analysis
• French Creole society
• water ceramics
• enslaved female servants