All,
I'm slightly (though by no means completely) disagreeing with George over a historical archaeology ceramics issue with no small degree of trepidation, but the important ceramics sources he outlines below are only going to be broadly helpful for Barbara Čeh if Slovenia - or, more accurately, for most of the period in question, Carniola, southern Carinthia, Lower Styria and the other Slovene lands of the Habsburg Empire - share their post-17th century ceramics tradition with the North Atlantic world.
While some porcelains (Chinese and European) and stonewares will liekly be shared, it's usually only with the end of the Napoleonic Wars (which had significant political impact on what's now Slovenia) c. 1815 that large-scale consumption of the North Atlantic ceramics tradition so important to most of George's citations can really be seen in much of Continental Europe; at the foot of the Adriatic, it's only with the Greek War of Independence (1820s and 1830s) that consumption of British ceramics really seems to get underway. Even in the mid 19th century, the British pottery trade to much of the Mediterranean is negligible compared to much of the rest of the world. For example, in the first 6 months of 1856, 1857, and 1858, an average of 82.5 crates are shipped to France, compared to an average of 4329 crates across the same period to Canada. 19th-century Mediterranean trade for British ceramics seems to have largely been pushed towards the Ottoman Empire and associated territories, but the Habsburg territories don't even warrant a separate mention in Liverpool export records for the period, even though the region around the upper Adriatic would have been the Habsburg Empire's primary outlet to the sea. It's certainly possible that goods could have transported to the Habsburg territories by ports in other territories, or that the Gulf of Venice is folded into the "Turkish Dominions and Mediterranean" category - I've never previously had to check, and it's a little difficult to check quickly while I'm in the field with a dodgy internet connection in northern Qatar (and that category certainly excludes the western Med) - but I'd consider it more than likely that Slovenia has a fairly distinct ceramics signature drawing on Italian and Austrian traditions, rather than North Atlantic ones, for much of the period under question.
If Barbara means the same thing by "historic period" that most of the subscribers to this list do - the period c.1500 to the present - rather than the broader European meaning of the term, she'd should likely get in touch with post-medievalists in Austria (particularly Natascha Mehler at the University of Vienna) and Italy (particularly, given the proximity to Slovenia, the relevant people at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice) and then use George's sources to complement any data these European colleagues may be able to provide rather than use the below sources as the first port of call - invaluable though they undoubtedly are for colleagues working in the UK, North America, much of South America, Australasia, and many sites in Africa (as they indeed have been for me).
Alasdair Brooks
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Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 22:17:13 -0500
From: George Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Ceramic projects
Barbara,
What time period are you working with? Clearly the historic period for
Slovenia is much longer that what we in North America are use to dealing
with. The following sources would be useful if you are working on ceramics
from the post 17th century period.
Robert Copeland
2009 *Manufacturing Processes of Tableware during the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries.* The Northern Ceramic Society. £25 plus £3.00
shipping. Email [log in to unmask]
Robert was of the Copeland family and he was apprentices as a presser and
spent time at the bench. His book is a wonderfully illustrated source of
the processes of manufacture along with a good description of what they
involved.
The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory Diagnostic Artifacts in
Maryland web site is an excellent source for dates of common wares and it
has great illustrations. I have a paper on that web site titled “Common
Staffordshire Cup and Bowl Shapes” that is available for download. It has
profile drawings of the common shapes and charts listing they types of
decoration that they are found on the different shapes through time.
The Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology’s web site has my four
part article “Thoughts Towards a User’s Guide to Ceramic Assemblages” that
can be downloaded for free.
George L. Miller, Patricia Samford, Ellen Shlasko and Andrew Madsen
2000 “Telling Time for Archaeologists” *Northeast Historical
Archaeology*Vol. 29, pages 1-22.
This article has many *TPQ *dates for common types of ceramics, glass and
other types of artifacts.
If you or your institution belongs to the Society for Historical
Archaeology, you would be able to download previous articles from *Historical
Archaeology*.
The web site for *Ceramics in America*, edited by Robert Hunter has a
number of articles that can be downloaded. Chipstone Foundation publishes
this journal.
Hope this is helpful.
Peace,
George L. Miller
On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Carl Steen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On 12/5/2013 2:35 AM, Barbara Ceh wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues:
>>
>> I am writing to you for some informations on ceramic projects associated
>> with the Historic period.
>> My name is Barbara Čeh, I come from Slovenia (EU) and I am an
>> archaologist, specialized in analyses of pottery.
>> For the primary handling with ceramic artifacts there are few
>> instructions in Slovenia and the procedures are not standardized and
>> unified; so this work is also a methodical challenge.
>> I would be very grateful, if you could help me with some informations:
>> Where should we start with some artifact guides, some studies providing
>> methodology, some classic case studies, and some suggestions about
>> beginning a project; or maybe give me a hint who should I contact.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Barbara Čeh
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
> Hi Barbara - Prudence Rice's /Pottery Analysis/ and Clive Orton et al's
> /Pottery in Archaeology/ are a great place to start.
>
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