Het aardewerk uit een 10de- / vroeg-11de-eeuwse pottenbakkersoven te Merelbeke (Oost-Vlaanderen, België), CMA 18 (original) (raw)

Pottery from a 10th-early-11th c. pottery kiln from Merelbeke (Belgium). A small pottery kiln was excavated in 2000 at Merelbeke, about 10 km south of Ghent (Belgium). It was found on a site with a multi-period, mostly early medieval occupation. The earliest remains consisted of a late-Merovingian and Carolingian graveyard, located in the southern part of the excavation area. Later, a 10th-11th century settlement developed in the northern and western parts, represented by at least two wooden buildings and four ‘Grubenhäuser’. The pottery produced on the site is known only through the wasters found in the kiln itself. The oven pit contained 1812 sherds, representing 102 globular pots, 3 spouted pots and 4 frying pans. The technical homogeneity of the fabric is remarkable. All pots are made with a well-tempered, ferruginous clay, with a sorted sand temper of 2-3 mm large. Mostly non-tempered clay particles of 1 to 5 mm are visible in the fabric. The colour ranges from completely grey to completely beige, depending on the position of the pot in the kiln and on the intensity of the firing. The typology of the pots is very uniform. They have a globular body, a lenticular base and a simple rim with a diameter ranging from 120 to 200 mm. Most of the globular pots are decorated with rouletting on rim and shoulder; only 15 % of them are undecorated. The frying pan is a rather deep, bowl-shaped type with a short, hollow handle with a perforation in the body. Based on the morphological characteristics of the pottery, the production of the small kiln at Merelbeke can be dated to the second half of the 10th and the first half of the 11th century. Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal from the kiln itself do not contradict this, although the results are ambiguous. When only the youngest dating results are taken in account, the use of the kiln dates from in the first quarter of the 11th century. From a typological point of view, the pottery fits in very well with the pottery from the Scheldt region in that period as well with the broader pottery tradition of the time in the (southern) Low Countries.