A meeting of the North West Region Medieval Pottery Research Group will be held on Saturday 24th March in Liverpool.
Apologies for the short notice but Rob Philpott, Sam Rowe and I thought you would like the opportunity to see the recently discovered assemblage of pottery from Rainford, St Helens reported on by Sam Rowe in the last MPRG newsletter: https://www.medievalpottery.org.uk/nlcurr.pdf

This important material suggests a source for some of the Cistercian-type wares found in the North West and provides evidence for an early post-medieval production centre in the region. Sam has been working hard to get the assemblage washed, sorted and catalogued before her placement at Liverpool Museum ends in a few weeks.

The day will start at 10.30 and will be an informal occasion with the morning spent looking at the evidence for 16th and 17th century pottery production in Rainford, St Helens. In the afternoon we will discuss the significance of the recent discoveries at Rainford for pottery use and distribution in the area, in particular Cistercian-type wares. Participants are welcome to bring along groups of Cistercian-type wares and early blackwares and yellow wares from excavations in their area. There will be an opportunity at the end of the afternoon to visit the new Liverpool Museum and see the pottery in their displays.
We will finish by 16.00.

Rob has kindly organised a room for us in the Maritime Museum basement, Albert Dock; for directions and details of public transport please see the Liverpool Museums website:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/directions.aspx
Parking is not easy – dropping off pottery can be done at the Maritime Museum from 10.00, parking might be possible outside the Dock Traffic Office but there are only about 4 spaces and it will be first come first served. Failing that, there is parking at Kings Dock – 10 minute walk but £5 for 5 hours. There is also a small carpark outside the Dock Traffic office – this is just being renovated so the charges are not visible at present.

If you would like to attend please email Julie Edwards vicepres@medievalpottery.org.uk

An international conference will take place in Caen on 30th-31st May 2012 entitled
“Des pots dans la tombe, IXe-XVIIIe siècle. Regards croisés sur une pratique funéraire en Europe de l’Ouest”. For further details visit the CRAHAM website http://www.unicaen.fr/crahm/spip.php?article631&lang=fr

Life in the City: Environmental and Artefactual Approaches to Urban Europe in the Middle Ages

Organisers: Ben Jervis (English Heritage; UK), Lee Broderick (University of York; UK) and Idoia Grau-Sologestoa (University of the Basque Country; Spain)

Traditional approaches to the study of Medieval urbanism have focused upon the reconstruction of town plans and the study of trade and craft activity. The wider potential of environmental and artefactual remains has not been fully realised. The aim of this session is to explore the range of insights that detailed study of these remains can provide in exploring, for example:
– The levels of similarity and difference between urban and rural living. Did a continuum or a dichotomy emerge through everyday life in these different environments? How did engagements with objects and the environment contribute to a uniquely urban existence?
– Did urbanism foster a worldview in which similar material and environmental objects generated different symbolic meanings?
– How did experiences of urban life vary between individuals and households, based, for example, on their wealth, ethnicity, gender or profession?
– How did experiences of urban life vary between towns, for example, through the exposure of members of their population to international influences?
– The level of mutual dependence between urban and rural communities. How interdependent were towns and their hinterlands and cities and their regions (including smaller towns)?
– How can artefactual and/or environmental evidence help us understand the social structure of towns and cities?
The range of papers in this session will not only allow us to explore these themes using a variety of evidence, but to consider regional and temporal differences in experiences of urban life across Europe. Papers which combine different strands of evidence, to explore the role of artefactual and/or environmental assemblages in answering these questions are particularly encouraged. By moving beyond the characterisation of urban landscapes, this session will begin to question what it was to be urban in Medieval Europe, whether a single conceptualisation of this phenomenon can be reached, or if instead the study of this material leads to an acknowledgement of heterogeneity.

For more information please email bpjervis@googlemail.com

The MPRG Conference will take place on the Isle of Man from 21st-23rd June. The theme is ‘Ceramics on the Edge’. Details and suggestions for accomodation can be found here: http://www.liv.ac.uk/manxstudies/MPRG_2012/index.htm

These photographs are of a fantastic display of ceramics, glass and other artefacts from recent excavations in The Hague, Holland. They were on display in the Town Hall as part of the opening ceremony of this years EAA conference. They include fine examples of Maiolicas, Stonewares and Weser and Werra wares. The MPRG delegates present, Derek Hall, George Haggarty, Maureen Mellor and Duncan Brown could only find one label to disagree with!

Click here for PDF with images.

Click here for the provisional programme for the Early Medieval Pottery Workshops conference to be held in Douai in early October.

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Tribute to Mercedes Vegas will be held in Cadiz from 1st-5th November 2010.

The event is aimed to anyone who is interested in ceramic studies,The congress will be a forum to analyze and synthesise recent advances in the techniques of cermaic analyisis, including methodology, morphological and typological classifications, graphical representations, new technologies in data processing, experimental studies, and scientific techniques.

Proposals for papers or posters are welcome. For more information, click here.

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To be held at Rewley House, Oxford, 24th-26th September 2010.

The Society For Medieval Archaeology’s autumn conference will examine the evidence for the interiors of late medieval domestic buildings. It is jointly organized with the Vernacular Architecture Group and brings together for the first time in recent years, scholars from all the relevant archaeology, history and architectural history to review the latest work in this field in England, Scotland and Wales.

Click here for more information.

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Some photos from the launch of Festschrift for Prof Frans Verhaege (a very old friend of the Medieval Pottery Research Group) that took place in Bruges, Belgium, on Thursday 29th April 2010.

Click here to download a pdf of the images.

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An inter-disciplinary meeting, Glasgow, July 1-2, 2010

Please see the link below for further details:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/newslinks/ceramicviews/

You can also download the poster for the event here