Medieval And Early Modern Pottery 393
used to produce a domestic type scattered in the area.17 Archaeometric stud-
ies have, in fact, clearly revealed that these clays were used in the production
of ceramic, but the research must be set on a broader archaeological base to
answer the questions raised by this data.
Other areas of kitchen production have been suggested by archaeometric
analyses conducted on two additional groups of samples from Sassari’s Largo
delle Monache Cappuccine, which demonstrate compatibility with the geol-
ogy of the area around the city of Sassari, on the one hand, and with the area of
Piana di Ozieri, situated around 40 km to the west. Twelfth-century fragments
from the excavation of Ardara have not been submitted to petrologic analyses,
but the technique used for molding seems to differ. If the objects from Sassari
all display a certain care in their modeling, ensured by the use of a slow lathe
throughout the period in question, the samples from Ardara show many more
signs of manual modeling, with or without the help of vegetal fiber containers
probably used as matrices.
The regional provenance of kitchenware thus demonstrates the manner in
which the overseas pottery trade viewed forms of tableware—unglazed, lead-
glazed, majolica—as well as shipping containers in the Early Middle Ages.
Until now, examples of pots and pans, occasionally lead-glazed, imported from
Tuscany, southern France, or Catalonia, and displaying technological features
unknown to local craftsmen, were documented only for the late Middle Ages.
If archaeometric data has verified the manufacture of coarse pottery, indica-
tions of regional production of majolica or lead-glazed ceramic are still rather
weak. Evidence of glazed pottery with forms and decorations similar to those
of archaic majolica from Pisa and Savona, or tin from Spain, but with bodies of
slightly depurated ceramic and displaying obvious defects in the glaze caused
by excessive fumigation during the firing process (Fig. 15.3), is constantly in-
creasing.18 In any case, the problem must still be confronted with adequate
studies at least until archaeological indicators, such as kilns, spacers, and waste
from the firing process, are discovered.19
17 The definition of domestic production is derived from analytical models formulated for
Roman ceramics by David P.S. Peacock, Pottery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological
Approach (London, 1982).
18 Manufactured objects for which the area of production has not been identified have
been documented in Ardara, Osilo, Thiesi, Sassari, Alghero, Geridu, and Monteleone
Roccadoria.
19 In southern Sardinia, too, the signs of local production are rather uncertain. Two lead-
glazed jugs and a plate found in Pula, together with a batch of Spanish pottery decorated