Misfire
Misfire is a technical term that is used in pottery and ceramic firing technology, derived from it is also used in archaeological parlance. It describes undesired results, production waste and rejects that occur when burning clay .
In particular, the pre-industrial mass production of ceramic tableware was prone to failure. It began in Europe in the first half of the 1st century, when professionalized pottery companies organized according to the division of labor replaced the previously subsistence pottery production. The Roman mass production was traded supraregional and replaced the indigenous handcrafted ceramics with mostly only local distribution.
In the entire manufacturing process, there could be disruptions during mass production. Starting with the selection of raw materials and tools, the preparation of the clay , but also with the shaping of the vessels, with drying and especially with firing, undesirable developments were possible. Such malfunctions could impair the product quality and even lead to a total loss of an entire furnace load. The result were deformations, vessels that were baked together or fused in stacks, fire cracks and overfiring of the shard.
In the range of archaeological finds, false fires allow local production to be differentiated from imported goods. In the case of imported goods, false fires rarely occur, as these generally did not end up in long-distance trade. In contrast, production waste and rejects are often encountered in the vicinity of pottery. A frequent occurrence of false fires in the spectrum of finds can therefore indicate a pottery workshop nearby.
Unusable false fires or firing products that did not meet the potter's quality requirements were mostly disposed of in dumps or pits. But they are still on the market today as a second-choice product .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Hupka: The Roman settlement finds, commercial remains and road findings in Mönchengladbach-Mülfort. Dissertation, University of Cologne, Cologne 2015. p. 87. ( digitized version )
- ↑ Using the example of the Steinzeugs warehouse : Bärbel Kerkhoff-Hader: The potters' way of life and work in the South West Eifel. A contribution to stoneware research in the Rhineland. Rheinisches Archiv 110. Bonn 1980. S. 214–222.