This article characterizes white-grey vessels singled out during archaeological exploration of the sites at Puck and in certain other towns of the Gdańsk Pomerania (figs. 1, 10). Their analysis created an opportunity to identify one of the late-medieval trends in pottery handicrafts, and in particular, assessing whether it originated locally or was foreign to the being discussed territory.Because of the limited number of publications devoted to occurrence of white-grey vessels, their identification started with findings at the Puck sites. Of the overall 6500 pottery findings, a group of 278 vessels was singled out, primarily pots (93.2%), few bowls (5.8%), lids and a pitcher (fig. 3), dated from mid-15th to first half of 16th centuries. Towards end of the Middle Ages, these constituted nearly 10% of all ceramic vessels used in Puck (fig. 2). These were defined as white-grey due to their white, creamy or light-grey surface color, and the newly defined term served to differentiate this group from findings made of white ceramics produced from kaolinite clay typical for Kielce and Lesser Poland. The white-grey vessels were instead made of specific ferruginous clays characterized by low iron oxide contents of approx. 2.9% (fig. 5, tab. 1). Such products distinctly differed in material used from other pottery findings in Puck, as well as in painted ornamentation in upper part of the belly, somewhat differently shaped outlets (fig. 4:10) and in firing under reducing atmosphere, but without graying or smoking in the final firing phase. Such arguments allowed to assume that pottery traditions other than local were responsible for such features and it was concluded that white-grey vessels found in Puck were imported into this medieval township.Yet, available sources in Gdańsk Pomerania and elsewhere do not allow univocal assessing of places of pottery origins, what is additionally complicated by the different terminology applied to naming these products. Existing, published and unpublished, information does allow to state that similar vessels have been found in Gdańsk, Chojnice, Człuchów and Tuchola, and in the castles of Człuchów and Osiek (figs. 9, 10), and that their share in overall pottery findings remains at a level of up to several percent – similarly as in Puck. They resemble those found in Puck both as to macroscopic features and outlet shapes. However, no white-grey or generally white pottery findings were reported in other Pomerania townships, i.e. Lębork, Bytów and Skarszewy; and none were reported or no sources are available in respect to other Pomeranian municipalities e.g. Świecie, Nowe, Gniew, Tczew, Starogard Gdański, Hel and Debrzno. This fragmentary data allows drawing a preliminary conclusion that white-grey vessels are foreign to townships of Gdańsk Pomerania, but at this stage it is not possible to explicitly conclude whether such vessels were imported from outside the region, or originated from another, so far unidentified, local pottery center.Production of white vessels has been confirmed outside the Gdańsk Pomerania, with pottery workshops containing similar products founds during explorations in Bydgoszcz and Płock. Individual vessels originating from Bydgoszcz are similar macroscopically to those found in Puck, but the white wares made in high volumes at Płock are generally different than those reported in Puck. The latter cay be associated also with products originating from Lesser Poland, reported in many local towns e.g. in Chęciny, Łagów, Iłża, Solec upon the Vistula. Therefore, we may assume that white-grey vessels were imported into Gdańsk Pomerania in late medieval times, with similar in color pottery products found in this area belonging to at least both production trends, i.e. the white and white-grey varieties. But the accumulated so far knowledge does not allow identifying concretely where were such vessels made. Available data point to their origins from the south, i.e. from the Kingdom of Poland, and their occurrence in the second half of the 15th century in Gdańsk Pomerania is surely due to development of trade along the Vistula River route intensifying after the Thirteen Year War and growing imports of handicraft production primarily into Gdańsk. Thus, the white-grey vessels signify a foreign trend opposing local production, originating from regional or supra-regional trade, being domestic for material culture of Polish territories at the turn of Middle Ages and early modern times. Hence, their identification should be undertaken in association with research into the vast domestic market of the Kingdom of Poland and subsequently the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, opening to Late Medieval and modern times archaeology an opportunity to contribute meaningfully in reconstructing local trade contacts and sales markets throughout historical Polish territories.
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Sep 20, 2023
Xiaodi Liu + 5
