Handmade pottery of the Roman Period (original) (raw)
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The Excavations at Wijnaldum Volume 2: Handmade and Wheel-thrown Pottery of the first Millennium AD, , 2020
During the three summer campaigns of fieldwork at Wijnaldum in 1991, 1992 and 1993, most of the material remains that were found during the excavation were processed (cleaned and split into material categories) by a large group of volunteers. This publication is a very late recognition of their painstaking work. Thanks to their efforts, specialists could start with the analysis of the huge amount of find material immediately after the excavation ended. Priority was given to the identification and dating of pottery types, because that information (providing termini ante and post quem) was needed for establishing the chronology and phasing of the settlement, and continuity or discontinuity in habitation. Pottery dates combined with the stratigraphy of the features resulted in the chronology of the settlement of Wijnaldum-Tjitsma that was presented in Volume 1 of “The excavations at Wijnaldum“.1 All the pottery was analysed during the years between the end of the fieldwork and the beginning of 1996 (Figure 2.1). Ernst Taayke was responsible for the handmade pottery of the Roman Iron Age, so-called ‘terp ware’, for the pottery of the of the 5th and 6th centuries also known as Anglo-Saxon-style pottery, and for the grass-tempered2 ovoid pots, so-called Tritsum ware. Danny Gerrets and Jan de Koning analysed the pottery of the Early Middle Ages: the ovoid pots with grit temper, also known as Hessens-Schortens ware4 or (in Germany), weiche Grauware; the globular pots of the later Early Middle Ages; and imported, wheel-thrown pottery, starting with coarse-ware late-Roman-type pottery; and ending somewhere in the 10th century with Pingsdorf-type pottery. Some chapters on relatively small categories were already published in the first volume: terra sigillata by Tineke Volkers and Roman wheel-thrown pottery by Marjan Galestin.The large majority of the pottery that played an important role in the chronology, however, still awaited publication in the second volume. After a delay of more than twenty years after the appearance of Volume 1, it is finally presented in this book.
The Excavations at Wijnaldum Volume 2: Handmade and Wheel-thrown Pottery of the first Millennium AD
Annet Nieuwhof (editor), 2020
Wijnaldum is nowadays an unassuming rural village in the north of the province of Friesland, no more than a small dot on the map of the Netherlands. But during the Early Middle Ages, this probably was a lively political centre, a kingdom, with intensive contacts with other kingdoms along the North Sea coasts, and with the Frankish realm to the south. The search for the king that resided at Wijnaldum was the major goal of the excavations that were carried out at the terp Wijnaldum-Tjitsma between 1991 and 1993. These excavations yielded a wealth of information, although tangible remains of the king or a royal residence were not found. What was found was a lot of pottery. The ceramic assemblage from the first Millennium consists of local handmade and imported wheel-thrown pottery, revealing contacts with the wider world. The first results and an overview of the habitation phases were published in 1999, in Volume 1 of The Excavations at Wijnaldum. The ceramic assemblage, and its consequences for the habitation history of Wijnaldum, are the main subjects of this second volume of The Excavations at Wijnaldum.
The Excavations at Wijnaldum Volume 2: Handmade and Wheel-thrown Pottery of the first Millennium AD., 2020
This chapter discusses a number of contexts with large amounts of pottery from the Merovingian period. This period saw the use and production of pottery at Wijnaldum undergoing a remarkable development. While household pottery formerly was homemade for a household’s own use, imported pottery from the Rhineland becomes the most numerous in this period, to decline again towards the Carolingian period. In habitation Period IV1 (AD 550-650) a striking 63.7% of the pottery assemblage at Wijnaldum consists of wheel-thrown Merovingian coarse ware.2 At the same time, handmade pottery was still being produced, but the previous, beautifully finished, decorated and undecorated pottery of the 5th century (types A1 and A2 described by Taayke in Chapter 4) is replaced by much coarser handmade ware: the types A3 and A4, which come in two variants: grass- or chaff-tempered ware (Tritsum ware), and grit-tempered ware (Hessens-Schortens ware). Not only do these types tend to be less well-finished than before, but also their shapes become rather squat, actually not unlike the shapes of the Merovingian imported pots. From then on, these ovoid, barrel-, or bucket-shaped pots evolve into one of the most notable export products of the coastal Frisians, the completely globular pot or Kugeltopf. In habitation period V (AD 650-750), the percentage of imported pottery sees a dramatic decline, dropping to just 1.2% of the ceramic assemblage. The reasons behind the decline are not entirely clear. Period IV coincides with the heyday of Wijnaldum and its surroundings as the centre of a regional kingdom that probably encompassed the present provinces of Friesland and Groningen. The import of Merovingian pottery decreased well before Friesland was annexed by the Franks in 734; still, imported glass vessels from this period at Wijnaldum show that the exchange of goods with the Frankish world had not come to a standstill, despite possibly less-than-friendly relations during the period of the Frankish conquest. Period IV is also the ‘Golden Age’ of the northern Netherlands, with a large number of gold objects.6 The famous Wijnaldum brooch is the most striking example of this gold horizon (see also Chapter 1). The peak in the im-portation of Frankish pottery coincides with this Golden Age. Just like gold objects, imported pottery seems to concentrate at Wijnaldum and in northern Westergo, and from there seems to have been distributed in stages from this centre to the periphery of this regional kingdom. This explains the concentrations of imported pottery and gold in northern Westergo, and the much occurrences of gold and of Merovingian coarse and fine wares in settlements further from it; apparently these settlements depended on the centre in northern Westergo for their imported goods. The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, it aims at underpinning the chronology of the imported pottery presented and discussed in the previous chapter. Secondly, it investigates the proportional amounts of imported and locally made pottery. And thirdly, it discusses the start of the importation of Merovingian pottery. The contexts that were selected also give us some insight into the deposi-tional practices and processes in the Merovingian period at Wijnaldum. They are presented in chronological order.
2010. The Swifterbant pottery tradition (5000-3400 BC): matters of fact and matters of interest
This paper presents an overview of the pottery of the Swifterbant culture (5000-3400 cal BC). The Swifterbant culture is found in north-western Europe, between the river Scheldt in Belgium and the river Elbe in northern Germany. Most sites are located in the wetland areas of the Netherlands; its distribution across the sandy areas is as yet more difficult to determine due to the restricted preservation conditions. The production of pottery started in the Late Mesolithic; the source of inspiration for this innovation is still under debate. The debate focuses on the question to what extent contacts with LBK farmers and neighbouring hunter-gatherer groups is of relevance. A second point of discussion is the importance of the base morphology. The ceramics of the middle phase (4600-3900/3800 cal BC) reveal regional styles within a technological and morphological tradition. The late phase (3900/3800-3400 cal BC) seems restricted to the northern part of the Netherlands and northern Germany; in the southern part of the Netherlands the Hazendonk group developed.
Late Roman (Germanic-style) handmade pottery
In: Vanhoutte, S. (ed.), Change and continuity at the Roman coastal fort at Oudenburg from the late 2nd until the early 5th century AD (vol. II), 2023
Petrographic analysis of the late Roman handmade pottery found during the excavations of the coastal fort at Oudenburg: fabric descriptions, provenance and technological analysis, notes on mobility and migration. With contribution of S. Vanhoutte.
The Roman Pottery Kiln at Halder, North-Brabant (the Netherlands), Revisited
Xantener Berichte , 2016
The Roman site at Halder was explored by archaeologists at the Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek (ROB) around fifty years ago; this revealed a Roman pottery kiln, several wells and clay pits. Willem Willems examined the kiln and associated finds in detail, and published his results. Having developed a typo-chronology of the pottery wasters, he found that the kiln was in operation during the Flavian period, i.e. between 65 and 80 AD. Taken all the evidence for pottery production at the site into account, Willems believed that one of the clay pits comprised the raw materials used for potting activities. As a result, he concluded that the excavations represented only a small part of what would have been a fairly extensive pottery industry. Following on from this, the authors of this article re-examined the pottery assemblage, which is currently stored at the Oudheidkundig Museum Sint-Michielsgestel. Using a detailed compositional approach to ceramics, which combines thin section petrography and geochemistry, it is suggested that three more types of vessels can be assigned to Willems’ typo-chronological study. In addition, it was found that the clay from the clay pit did not match the clay used for Roman potting activities.
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Crafting pottery in Bronze Age Europe: the archaeological background of the CRAFTER project
Katarina Dmitrovic, Roberto Risch, Eva Celdrán Beltrán, János Dani, María Inés F Fregeiro Morador, Vesna Vuckovic, Vojislav Filipovic, Carla Garrido García, aleksandar bulatovic, Viktória Kiss, Vajk Szeverényi, Jovan D . Mitrović, D. Gómez-gras, Gabriella Kulcsar, Petar Milojević, Vojislav Djordjević, Carlos Velasco Felipe, Marija Ljustina, Gucsi László
Crafting pottery in Bronze Age Europe: the archaeological background of the CRAFTER project, 2021