Studium keramiky vrcholného a pozdního středověku v Čechách : témata, metody, přístupy

Abstract

This contribution charts the sixty years of the systematic study of pottery of the high and late Middle Ages in Bohemia, and introduces the basic subjects and methods developed along with the progress of archaeology of the late Middle Ages. Medieval pottery involving the most widespread artefacts and various approaches to their study illustrate the development of Czech archaeology of the late Middle Ages influenced by contemporaneous archaeological paradigms, and initially also by ideological concepts associated with Marxist historiography. The history of the study of pottery of the high and late Middle Ages can be divided into five main areas: the antiquarian period and the beginnings of study; the typological phase; further development of the typological study focused on regional sequences of pottery, and the present, ongoing contextual phase with emphasis on a more comprehensive approach to the study and more profound socio-economic issues. A similar trend in the development of the study of medieval pottery can be observed in west-European countries. In the paper the development is also demonstrated on the basis of the critical assessment of studies dedicated to pottery of the high and late Middle Ages published in two leading specialist Czech periodicals, Archeologicke rozhledy and Archaeologia historica.