Trade, Technology, and Identity: Current Approaches to Pottery Studies in Late Antique and Early Medieval Europe

Summary

This paper will survey some of the most interesting and innovative recent contributions of pottery studies to our knowledge of late antique and early medieval Central Europe (circa fifth to tenth centuries CE). Since an exhaustive review of the many national traditions across this culturally and linguistically diverse region is beyond the scope of this paper, the focus will remain on three broad areas of inquiry. First, what insights can pottery offer into changing patterns of exchange and networks of trade in the late antique and early medieval world? Second, what can pottery reveal about localized and regional modes of production, especially in terms of manufacturing traditions and technological style? Third, what (if anything) can pottery tell us about the expression of individual and collective identities in the post-Roman era? For each of these three themes, we will review how research agendas have evolved over the past several decades, identify key intellectual debates in the contemporary scholarship, and consider the promises and challenges of future research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• North and South: New Directions in Medieval European Archaeology

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