Tinaja
Physical Object
1986.008.0851
Nuestra Señora de Atocha (1622)
circa 1620
A large, heavily built earthenware jar of a type called a “tinaja” comes from the galleon Atocha. The paste is like that used in the olive jars but with more gritty inclusions. Angled wavy lines run from the neck to the mid-section and connect to a similar decoration that encircles the piece. This ornamentation resembles flowing water and suggests the jar might have been used as a water dispenser on board the ship, though in Spain tinajas were also used for the storage of wine and other liquids, as well as grains. The earliest tinajas date to the Bronze Age. In the colonial era, the manufacture of tinajas is associated with southern Spain. This vessel is covered with oyster shells and other calcareous marine growth, evidence of its long time under the sea.