Mayener goods
Mayener Ware is the collective name for turntable-turned ceramic vessels that were manufactured in pottery factories in today's town of Mayen ( Mayen-Koblenz district ) from late antiquity to the early modern period .
history
As early as the 3rd century, Roman pottery companies were producing Mayen goods. The late antique ovens stood on the left bank of the Nette , on the edge of the vicus von Mayen, which gave the settlement its first economic boom in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Mayen goods were distributed on the Roman trade routes on the Moselle and Rhine from Lake Constance to England. In Franconian times at the latest , the Mayen potters relocated their production facilities to the left bank of the river. During this period, between the 6th and 8th centuries, there was another period of economic prosperity. The pottery factories continued to exist when the Genovevaburg was built in the 13th century. In the late Middle Ages, however, the Mayen pottery lost its economic importance in favor of the Siegburg pottery location . In the 15./16. In the 19th century, only a few Mayen products can be traced. At the latest, the destruction of Mayens by French troops under Marshal Duras as a result of the Palatinate War of Succession ended the 1000-year-old pottery tradition.
Research history
For the first time, Kurt Böhner defined the pottery made in Mayen as an independent product group in 1958.
At least 18 production facilities for Mayen goods are known from Roman times. Most of them are located on the left bank of the river Nette, northeast of today's center. However, these have not yet been archaeologically examined. Only the pottery products are known of them, which petrographically can be clearly assigned to Mayen clay deposits.
The medieval production facilities of the Mayen pottery were on the right side of the Nette between the Genovevaburg and today's St. Elisabeth Hospital. The oldest known medieval pottery kilns in this area date to the 6th century. The first systematic investigations of these ovens took place under the direction of Hans Eiden in 1974/75 in the Siegfriedstrasse area. In 1986 and 87 an excavation was carried out by the State Office for Archeology Koblenz on the occasion of the construction of the “Burggarage” multi-storey car park. The property to be developed was on the Glacis of Genovevaburg, that is, on a site that has been used for defense purposes since the construction of the Castle had remained undeveloped. This structural feature offered the unique opportunity to be able to provide fundamental knowledge about the time of the Franconian conquest , the transition from Roman late antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The opportunity could not be taken, however, as the emergency excavation during construction was under pressure from investors and the building owner of the parking garage and, despite the supraregional importance of the ground monument, could only be minimally documented and examined.
technology
The Mayen pottery produced, regardless of political changes, from around the 3rd century AD until the 16th century. Mainly clay vessels were initially made from earthenware , later also harder fired goods, known as Mayen stoneware . What they all have in common is the production on a fast-turning potter's wheel and the characteristic shards .
The clay for the production of Mayen goods was obtained in tertiary deposits from the vicinity of Mayen in the Vulkaneifel and is shaped by the volcanism of the Eifel. The color of the body varies between gray and gray-yellow. Inclusions of volcanic minerals such as sanidine , plagioclase , augite and horn blends , which are also macroscopically visible in the clay matrix of the body, are a special feature of Mayen ceramic production . This gives the body a sandy structure.
The layered slate texture of the shard is partly characteristic of Mayen goods.
Mayener Ware Product Groups (Fabrics)
Structure of the group (according to REDKNAP 1988)
| Fabric | description | Dating |
|---|---|---|
| Mayen R | Late Roman ware | 3rd to mid-5th century |
| Mayen A | Rough-walled goods | from 5th century |
| Mayen B | Smoothed, red engobed goods | 5th to 7th century |
| Mayen D | Late Merovingian, smoothed goods | 6th to 7th centuries |
| Mayen FP | Goods painted red | Mid 7th to mid 8th century |
| Mayen F | Fast stoneware | from 7th century |
| Mayen K | Protostoneware | 12th to 13th centuries |
Mayen Fabric R
Production of Mayen Fabric R begins in the post- Diocletian period. The main forms are storage vessels with lids. Reference excavations in Trier , Cologne , Alzey and Kaiseraugst serve as the dating basis for the Roman pottery production in Mayen . In addition to stratigraphic clues, coin treasures found in connection with Mayen ceramics provide important dating clues. Towards the end of the 4th century, late Roman Mayen goods were gradually replaced by products from the pottery town of Speicher .
Mayen Fabric A
At first glance, the early Merovingian production of rough-walled goods can hardly be distinguished from the Roman Mayen goods (Fabric R) due to the design language and the firing technology used. However, the sickle-shaped edge profile of the pots produced and the thicker bases are characteristic.
Mayen Fabric B
The Merovingian Mayen Fabric B contains high quality, red engobed earthenware. The surface of the vessels is smoothed. Rotary grooves can only be seen on the inside of the vessels. Bowls with fluted edges form the main shape. In the late phase of Fabric B, pots emerged whose shape is already reminiscent of spherical pots .
Mayen Fabric D
The late Merovingian Mayen Fabric D developed the bowls with grooved edges. Ball pots are also used in this fabric. The decor of Fabric D is partly based on Alemannic techniques.
Mayen Fabric FP
In the Carolingian era, the Mayen pottery produced oxidizing fired vessels with orange-red to red paint. The variety of shapes of the vessels produced is declining in favor of spherical pot shapes.
Mayen Fabric F.
From the 7th century onwards, the Mayen potters were able to permanently increase the firing temperature and mass-produce stoneware. The main forms of Fabric F are spherical pots with a characteristic wobble or lens base.
Mayen Fabric K
In the Middle Ages are in Mayen proto stoneware -vials made with red-brown shards. The Fabric K mainly contains drinking and storage vessels.
Others
In addition to classic vessel ceramics, floor tiles and stove tiles were also produced in the late production phase .
Monument protection
The late antique, medieval and early modern pottery workshops in Mayen represent ground monuments within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate (DSchG). Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, and accidental finds are reported to the monument authorities.
literature
- Hans Eiden: Early medieval pottery kilns from Mayen. In: Excavations on the Middle Rhine and Moselle 1963-76. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Trier 1982. P. 293 f.
- Erich Gose: Types of vessels in Roman ceramics in the Rhineland. In: Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher 1. Butzon and Bercker, Kevelaer 1950. P. 40 f.
- Lutz Grunwald: Notes on Mayen ceramic production from the 9th to 12th centuries. Archaeological evidence - economic historical statements - historical integration. In: High medieval ceramics on the Rhine. A source for production and everyday life in the 9th to 12th centuries . Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz 2012. pp. 143–160.
- Mark Redknap: Medieval pottery production at Mayen: recent advances, current problems . In: David Gaimster, Mark Redknap, Hans-Helmut Wegner : On ceramics of the Middle Ages and the early modern times in the Rhineland. Medieval and later pottery from the Rhineland and his markets. BAR International Series 440, Oxford 1988, pp. 3-37.
- Hans-Helmut Wegner : Archaeological observations on medieval ceramic production in Mayen, Mayen-Koblenz district. In: David Gaimster, Mark Redknap, Hans-Helmut Wegner: On ceramics of the Middle Ages and the early modern times in the Rhineland. Medieval and later pottery from the Rhineland and his markets. BAR International Series 440, Oxford 1988.
- Hans-Helmut Wegner (ed.), Mark Redknap: The Roman and medieval pottery in Mayen, Mayen-Koblenz district ( reports on archeology on the Middle Rhine and Moselle 6). Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier 1999.
Individual evidence
- ^ Kurt Böhner: The Franconian antiquities of the Trier country. Germanic Monuments of the Migration Period, Series B1. 1958.
- ↑ Redknap 1988, p. 4.
- ↑ Eiden 1982, p. 293f.
- ↑ Wegner 1988, p. 39ff.
- ↑ Wegner 1988, p. 41.
- ↑ Gose1950, p. 40.
- ↑ Gose 1950, p. 40.
- ↑ A typical leading form is Gose 547 (Gose 1950, p. 46, plate 55.)
- ^ Form Alzey 27 ( Wilhelm Unverzagt : Die Keramik des Kastells Alzey. Materials for Roman-Germanic ceramics , Volume 2. Baer, Frankfurt am Main 1916).
- ^ Monument Protection Act of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate