Medieval Ceramics Volume 10: Bulletin of the Medieval Pottery Research Group

This paper is an exploration of the extent to which potters - always at the low end of the craft hierarchy - were able to share in the common stock of medieval ornament. It was found that the vast majority of pots were undecorated. Early pots had simple ornament appropriate to clay but the situation changed in the middle period when ornament reflected the religious and artistic preoccupation of other crafts, in particular the tilers and the workers in iron. There was less ornament in the late period when much use was made of stamps which were readily available and could be rapidly applied.

The site of the early medieval emporium of Quentovic in northern France has been the subject of debate for many years. Recent work has located the site and this note relates to the early medieval ceramic assemblage recovered during excavations in 1985 and 1986. Future work should establish a local pottery sequence which will have implications for assemblages from similar sites in England with imported wares as well as for European assemblages. The close similarity of this assemblage to the imported wares found at Middle Saxon Southampton is noted although a full understanding of the implications of this fact must await further investigations.

The method of manufacture of the tiles from York has been studied in detail and the results obtained compared with pre-Conquest tiles from other locations (Betts 1985, 285-314).

A small excavation by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust has yielded the near-complete base of a small kiln, with its flue and firing-chamber densely packed with large sherds and wasters. The pottery is unlike the dominant local sandy ware for the period and shows very strong formal and decorative North French influences. Links with a Cathedral Precinct document- dated site confidently indicate a date between c. 1150-1175 for the kiln.

This paper examines some of the many non-dating uses of medieval pottery on site. It is argued that the traditional role of medieval pottery as a dating media is its least reliable quality. The different aspects of pottery distribution on site are considered, including the dispersal of sherds from the same vessel, distribution of forms, evidence for use (including wear marks, sooting, residues and secondary holes), patterns of dumping, residual material, pots found in situ and the relevance of excavated groups of artefacts. Much of the discussion is based on the material from the extensively excavated Sandal Castle (West Yorkshire). Evidence is also produced to show that similar results can be obtained from sites where excavation has been much more limited. The conclusions reached have far reaching implications for the way in which sites are excavated and, more significantly, for the way in which the finds from them are interpreted. Perhaps most importantly, a number of techniques allow the residual element to be identified, which on many types of site is very high, suggesting that not only should we be much more critical about the validity of groups as excavated, but also about the way in which we publish the material.

Secretary's Report 1986-1987

Preliminaries (i.e. coverpage, contents) of Medieval Ceramics 1986