Post-medieval Pottery in Mazovia and Podlachia (16th–18th Century) – a Preliminary Report

The text is dedicated to the question of traditions and innovations in post-medieval pottery manufactured and used in the territory of today’s Mazovia and Podlachia in Poland. It focuses on the distribution of waregroups in the assemblages from selected sites dated to the mid-16th – late 18th centuries. The list includes both capital cities in the province (Warsaw, Płock) and local towns (Ciechanów, Płońsk, Przasnysz), as well as royal and aristocratic residences, gentry manors and villages. Among the most characteristic features worthy of note are the long lasting of early medieval manufacturing traditions, the widespreaduse of greyware, the relatively small proportion of whiteware and glazed vessels, as well as the sporadic (excluding Warsaw) occurrence of fineware (porcelain, faience). The analysis points to the specificity of Mazovian pottery in 16th–18th centuries, in relation to both other Polish lands and our notions on trends in pottery manufacture and use in the post-medieval period.

Continuation or Evolution? Changes in Pottery Production and Vessel Types Used in Pomerelian (Gdańsk Pomerania) Towns in the Early-Modern Period

The article discusses changes in production and the of the pottery used in towns in Pomerelia in the early-modern period. These considerations are based on advanced research on late-medieval pottery-making of the region and the relatively poorer state of knowledge about the continuity of transformations at the beginning of the early-modern period. The vantage point for this study is a characterisation of the source base, including both the artefactual and written evidence. This enables the tracing of changes, and characteristic features of goods used, in the 16th century.

Gabriela Blažková and Kristýna Matějková (eds), Europa Postmediaevalis 2018. Post-Medieval Pottery Between (its) Borders. Gloucester 2019: Archaeopress, pp. 297, colours illustrations

The reviewed publication, published in 2019 by the British publishing house Archaeopress, is a collection of texts based on papers and posters presented at the international conference under the same title held in Prague in April 2018. This meeting brought together archaeologists from many European countries – including Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy, and Hungary – who conduct research on the early-modern period and the pertaining material culture. Both this event and the book in question were a response to the needs of the academic community, due to the ongoing development of historical archaeology in Europe and an increase in research on artefacts and other evidence recovered during fieldwork related to this. The time-frame of the post-medieval period differs slightly across particular European countries, encompassing artefacts from between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Editorial

The introduction to this year’s volume of Archaeologia Polona, subtitled Archaeology of post-medieval pottery in Poland and beyond. Tradition and innovation. It presents the content of the volume focused on early-modern ceramics found across present-day Poland and Czechia.

New research of elemental composition of East European medieval pottery

The paper presents the results of studying the composition of pottery by neutron activation analysis (involving X-ray fluorescence analysis). The study was based on samples of pottery made from highly ferrous (red-burning) clays originating from archaeological sites investigated in the territory of medieval Rus (Moscow and Ryazan Land) and the Volga River region (the Bolgar and Selitrennoye fortified settlements). They were compared with pottery samples from Byzantium and other regions (the Caucasus, Central Asia). A set of trace elements was identified whose content differs significantly in the pottery of different regions of Eastern Europe and differs also from the pottery of neighbouring countries. Cluster analysis confirmed the presence of noticeable differences in the trace element composition of clay masses from which medieval pottery were made. The results obtained allow the authors to admit the possibility of determining the origin of pottery by its trace element composition, at least at the level of large territories. Within these territories, differences in the composition of pottery have not yet been revealed.

Zdroje a šíření vybraných komodit keramické produkce vrcholného a pozdního středověku

The publication is focused on late medieval pottery products with higher aesthetical effect. The key group is represented by stove tiles, where the unifying elements of relief decoration helped to define series of motifs for stoves with specific iconographic concept, which were found in various locations. The same approach can be also used with small ceramic sculptures, aquamaniles and relief-decorated floor tiles, even though the achieved information value in these cases is much lower. Micropetrographic, XRF and other analyses helped to identify the production centres and the distribution model of these ceramic groups. 3D documentation enabled a detailed comparison of differences between individual reliefs and specific traces of manufacturing procedures. Individual chapters contain active links to the source database of analysed items and to 3D models of selected specimens from reference collections.