Reading pottery
The term “ reading ceramics ” refers to the remains of ceramic objects that are found on the surface of archaeological sites without excavation and thus represent a subspecies of reading material . Among other things, they occur in the rubble of a castle ruin , where they can be used to determine the age of the same.
These are mostly fragments of cookware and stove tiles . Particularly during the High and Late Middle Ages , a continuous further development of the processing of ceramic materials can be observed. It is the basis for the fact that the duration of the existence of a castle can be traced back to the development of the pottery used with a sufficient number of finds. In contrast to ceramics, masonry was often used in different forms during the work on a castle at the same time. Therefore, the age of the entire system can often be reconstructed using reading ceramics, while the masonry only allows conclusions to be drawn about individual components. In addition, reading ceramics usually do not require any laborious excavations, as the finds are already on the surface.
Regional manifestations
Swabian Alb
Two types of ceramics are mainly found in the Swabian Alb area : The yellow-toned older turntable goods are high-quality ceramics that are chronologically divided into the subtypes Runder Berg (9th to 11th centuries) and Jagstfeld (11th and 12th centuries ) according to their edge shape ) can be divided. Everyday tableware was the rather inconspicuous Albware , which was of poor quality. It is subdivided into the phases old (approx. 1050–1150), medium (1150–1220) and young (up to the 14th century) according to the shape of the vessel and the edge, the duration of which, in contrast to the sequence, is not considered certain.
literature
- Christoph Bizer / Rolf Götz: Forgotten castles of the Swabian Alb. DRW-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-87181-244-7 .