Empire, Crypto-Colonialism, and British Earthenware in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean

Abstract

During the 19th century, the British Empire constituted an economic and political presence in the Mediterranean that was felt far beyond the borders of her colonies Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, and Cyprus. One way this may be archaeologically investigated is through the presence of mass-produced British earthenware; another is the development of locally produced imitation ceramics, which were often initiated with British economic, technological, and artisanal input. Drawing on archaeological discoveries across the region, this article marks the first assessment of British earthenware in the Mediterranean. It explores the impacts of British earthenware and its imitations as vectors of empire, enabling consideration of the polycentric colonial encounters that occurred both within colonies and crypto-colonially beyond.