25 Local and European transport jars in Panama. Chemical and Mineralogical characterization Samantha G. Ferrer 1 , Jaume Buxeda i Garrigós 1 , Javier G. Iñañez 2,3 and Michael D. Glascock 4 1- Cultura Material i Arqueometria UB (ARQUB, GRACPE), Dept. de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Montalegre, 6, 08001 Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) (sgomezferrer@ub.edu, jbuxeda@ub.edu) 2- Grupo de Investigación en Patrimonio Construido, GPAC, Departamento de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain) (javier.inanez@ehu.eus) 3- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, María Díaz de Haro 3, 48013 Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) 4- University of Missouri Research Reactor Center, 1513 Research Park Drive, Columbia, MO 65211 (USA) (GlascockM@missouri.edu) During 16 th and 17 th centuries, Panamá Viejo was a regular recipient of ceramics from Seville, among which transport jars were the most common. At the same time, local production of transport jars was also likely. This paper explores transport jars found in Panamá Viejo and dated to between 1519 and 1671. In order to characterize the production, samples of ceramics were analysed chemically by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to study provenance, and mineralogically by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to study the technology of manufacture. The first results seem to contrast the archaeological evidence of a local production, as the result of cultural change in a colonial context and the introduction of Seville manufacture of transport jars. KEYWORDS: TRANSPORT JARS, PROVENANCE, COLONIAL AMERICA, CHEMICAL ANALYSIS, MINERALOGICAL ANALYSIS 25.1 Introduction Panamá Viejo was founded in 1519, after a decision to relocate the town of Santa María la Antigua del Darién. The relocation was finally completed by 1520. The new town became the first city facing the Pacific, something that would ensure its important role in colonial trade within the Americas. This commercial importance attracted the greed of pirates, and in the year of 1671 Panamá Viejo was attacked by Henry Morgan who left the city in ruins. The city was later abandoned to the inclement weather. The modern city of Panamá was built in 1673 at the south-west in the Casco Viejo or San Felipe area, the new Old Quarter (Martín and Mendizábal 2010). Since 1995, archaeological programs have been sponsored by the Patronato de Panamá Viejo in order to preserve and study the historic site for the future generations (Rovira and Martín 2008). The city remains were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003. Many lines of research are being conducted by the Archaeological Department of the Patronato de Panamá Viejo. Some of these include the excavation of the old buildings, aiming to understand the pre-Hispanic context and the later colonial period. The ceramic materials recovered include transport jars of European origin (Seville) called Botijas and transport jars called contenedores de pasta roja (red paste containers). The latter have been interpreted as a local production made to imitate their European counterparts and related to the wine industry in Peru, since the mid-sixteenth century (Rovira et al. 2006). During the life span of Panamá Viejo, Seville was the focal point for travel to the New World since its discovery in the 15 th century, mainly due to the establishment of the Casa de Contratación (The House of Trade) in 1503, the government agency that controlled the Spanish expansion and colonization in America. Anyone who wanted to travel to America was required to be registered with the Casa. At the same time, artisans from various places throughout Europe established their pottery workshops in the city, creating an almost semi-industrial pottery production. Many of the new workshops, called botijeros, concentrated on the manufacture of botijas, i.e. transport jars (Sánchez 1996), because of the high demand for transport jars in the commerce with America. Seville transport jars were first systematically studied by Goggin (1960). Goggin used the term olive jar for all