Session: #279

Content:

During the 13th century a significant change in ceramic technology took place, when potters in different European regions began to produce stoneware. Since then vessels for drinking, serving and storing were made not only for local consumers, but were also distributed to distant markets. Products from potteries like Martincamp (FR), Siegburg (D) or Nottingham (GB) can be found frequently in archaeological sites not only in Europe but also in former oversea colonies, which raises numerous questions concerning trade, demand and use of stoneware vessels.

The session will investigate the development in producer-consumer relations, which changed trade routes and resulting distribution patterns. Can stoneware be primarily seen as trade good or must one rather assume that they were used as containers for all sorts of commodities like Rhenish Bartmann jugs, which were shipped in large numbers to England to serve as transport containers for wine retail? Did preferences for specific stoneware workshops exist in past communities, which resulted in rising demand, or even the founding of new workshops?

In addition to the trade and direct use of stoneware vessels, the session will also focus on their meaning for the consumers. Was Rhenish stoneware really a expression of a "Hanseatic culture" in an urban context, as postulated in past research, or do finds in rural settlements in the Baltic paint a different picture? Were stoneware vessels really seen as part of an wealthy table or is this interpretation more likely to be due to the bias of the archaeological record? Did consumers care about the origin of products?

Session: #279

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