Ionico Daniel
Biography
I completed my B.A. Honours here at McMaster University in the spring of 2016 with a double major in Anthropology and History. During my undergraduate time at McMaster, I was a research assistant in the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research on Archaeological Ceramics (LIRAC) and at McMaster’s Sustainable Archaeology Repository. For my M.A. project, I will be examining the stylistic choices made by Neutral Iroquoian potters who lived here in the Hamilton area about four centuries ago. Using petrographic microscopy, a geological/material science technique, I intend to explore the pastes (clay recipes) used by potters in the multi-nation Neutral Confederacy. Throughout the various stages of manufacturing material culture, styles employed by craft producers are often influenced by the social contexts in which they are produced. With this, I seek to address how changing political, economic, and social conditions of the 17th century affected the transmission of technical style by potters within one nation of the confederacy. Through my project, I hope to be encouraging a sustainable practice in Ontario archaeology by employing extant collections with new theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques to address questions on Ontario’s past.