The Medieval Pottery from the 2010 Dig Season
Our ceramic specialist, Derek Hall, visited the offices of Rathmell Archaeology Ltd to assess the excavated ceramic assemblage from the first season of the Kilwinning Abbey Community Archaeology Project for date and provenance and to make recommendations for further analysis and reporting. The excavation of the 12 trenches and three test pits have produced 62 bags of pottery that was assigned a coarse medieval date by the team.
The Local Wares
The material recovered was dominated by red and whiteware fabrics that are probably of local manufacture and virtually all of these sherds are from glazed jugs. The exception to this was a single whiteware rimsherd from a jar/cooking vessel (1509 SF181).
Interior of sherd of RedwareRedwares are typified by having a high iron content in the fabric which is often visible as a purple ‘heat skin’ on the surface of the potsherd. Current research dates the start of this industry to the late 12th or early 13th centuries AD running through until the late 15th century when a change in kiln technology leads to the appearance of Scottish Post-Medieval Reduced and Oxidised Wares. Recent chemical analysis of samples from across Scotland has indicated that production centers for this fabric type existed in close proximity to all of the major river valleys.
Exterior of sherd of WhitewareIn comparison, whitewares are much harder fired and are the preferred fabric for the manufacture of cooking vessels. Jugs in this fabric are commonly splash glazed green and often decorated using a variety of techniques including applied pellets, notched applied strips, wavy combed lines and thumbed bases. Scottish white gritty ware has long been identified as Scotland’s earliest medieval pottery industry but dating for this type of pottery can be difficult, it is present from the earliest levels of most medieval sites in Ayrshire and probably continues into the 15th century before the white firing clays have all been used up. As with Redware, we presume that there is local manufacture of this ware, but no kiln sites have been located on the west coast.
In terms of date, the character of the red and whiteware fabrics recovered would indicate that the assemblage would seem to largely date between the 13th and 17th centuries AD. Within this range there are apparent concentrations in the 13th to 14th and 14th to 15th centuries AD.
Within the material examined there were also occasional sherds of quite crude brown glazed white fabrics that are liable to be of 17th to 18th century date and may also be local products.
Imported Wares
The provisional assessment also identified clear examples of imported wares. One redware rimsherd was identified that that maybe Iberian in origin (Trench 10 1003 SF536) while a sherd of Rhenish Langerwehe Stoneware from Germany (1402 SF441) was also found. These sherds date to the 16th to 17th centuries and 14th to 15th centuries respectively.
Exterior of sherd of Rhenish ware
Iberian rimsherd
Chemical Sourcing
The comprehension of Scotland’s medieval, post medieval and industrial ceramic industries has advanced beyond all recognition over the last 15 years largely due to the appliance of new scientific techniques, such as ICPS (Chemical Sourcing), that aid the sourcing of local ceramic production.
However the recent Historic Scotland funded Scottish White and Redware sourcing projects both suffered from a lack of decent fabric samples from Western Scotland which means that our understanding of local production in this area is not as good as it is elsewhere. This is where the assemblage from Kilwinning really comes into its own and although due to the nature of previous site clearance it has to be regarded as being essentially unstratified it provides the first real opportunity to try and establish a chemical signature for this part of Scotland. We have funded Derek to undertake sourcing work on a sample of the pottery from Kilwinning to clarify whether our pottery is being produced locally in Ayrshire or imported from further afield.
About the specialist
Derek Hall is a freelance archaeologist and ceramic specialist who has previous worked in senior roles within the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust and Historic Scotland. He is the author of numerous papers and books on medieval Scottish archaeology including 'Burgess, Merchant and Priest; Burgh Life in the Medieval Scottish Town' from Historic Scotland's The Making of Scotland series.
Exterior of sherd of WhitewareInterior of sherd of RedwareIberian rimsherdExterior of sherd of Rhenish ware
