Medieval Ceramics Volume 28: Journal of the Medieval Pottery Research Group

Until the beginning of the 1980s only two pottery kilns were known from the Middle Ages in the Danish area. Both kilns were found on Zealand at the localities of Farum Lillevang and Faurholm. Not until 1983 did new finds appear. In the course of several months three new pottery kilns were found with accompanying discarded and misfired pottery. The first of these kilns was found on the western edge of the village of Hellum in eastern Himmerland. Only a few months later the remains of another kiln appeared at the village of Kragelund about twenty kilometers north of Silkeborg, and almost at the same time more pottery and kilns came to light near the village of Barmer in Himmerland. The three new kilns were not only widely different in construction but also different from those already known. This gave rise to the establishment of a research and publishing project that included an analysis of the kilns as well as the preserved pottery, the realization of a series of experimental archaeological experiments, and the collection of comparative archaeological material and selected parallel ethnological and ethnographic material.

The site at Colstoun in East Lothian is still the only excavated Scottish White Gritty Ware production site. This paper reviews all of the work that has taken place at this site from the discovery of the first kilns in 1939 through to the most recent work at the site in 2000 which included the first archaeomagnetic date for one of the kilns. Some consideration is given to what historical evidence exists regarding the site and the products and firing technology are discussed. In conclusion Colstoun’s place in Scottish ceramic studies is discussed and future research priorities suggested.

This paper will analyse the major production centres of lustreware in Renaissance Italy. Focus will be on central Italy (Deruta and Cafaggiolo), considering both the development of the production technique and whether it can be proved that potters moved from one productive centre to the other carrying with them the knowledge needed for terzo fuoco. The attempts made in Montelupo and Faenza will be analysed as well. Primary sources, such as Li tre libri dell’arte del vasaio by Piccolpasso, describe in detail all the processes of lustre-ware making; these ‘recipes’ are known from other potters’ books written in the same period. What is not said, however, is how Renaissance potters came to understand the technique of applying metallic oxides to tin-glazed artefacts in order to obtain golden or silver reflexes. The contacts with Moresque Spain have been constant in the previous centuries and it might be possible that somehow Italian potters learned this technique from Spanish potters. While Italo-Moresque maiolica is the result of imitated models, lustreware production requires technological knowledge that could not have been acquired by chance. The influence of models circulating within the Mediterranean area will be considered as well, trying to understand how, together with their products, people circulated as well.

This paper, delivered at MPRG’s conference in Winchester 2004, rapidly surveys the use of the clay industries that may have impacted on the manipulation of private and public space in western Europe. Did these changing rooms influence potters and the social context of pottery utilisation? The paper concludes that assemblages, with people at their core, must embrace all movable goods to revisit some of the earlier excavations of castles, palaces and monastic institutions and using modern methodology explain the differences. The results need to be presented in a more accessible manner.

Publication review

Publication review

Publication review

Publication review

List of Officers and Council of the Medieval Pottery Research Group 2004

Regional Group Reports 2004

Editorial of Medieval Ceramics 2004