A 17th-century Kiln Site at Woolwich

Abstract

This report describes the results of the excavation of two adjacent kilns at Woolwich, one producing earthenware and one producing stoneware. Both date from the third quarter of the 17th century, though evidence suggests that the stoneware kiln is the earlier of the two. The report also includes a discussion of an earlier feature, a clay-lined pit, as well as several features associated with the three main features. The earthenware kiln had twin stoke holes and produced domestic pottery. The stoneware kiln had a single stoke hole and produced Bellarmine jugs with other stoneware vessels, and is the only stoneware kiln of this period yet discovered in Britain.¹     

A 17th-Century Kiln Site at Potterspury,Northamptonshire

Abstract

This report describes the excavation in 1965 of two adjacent wood-fired pottery kilns producing decorated and undecorated coarse wares and glazed fine wares during the second half of the 17th century. One kiln was of single flue type; the other, larger kiln, was double flued. The post-medieval kilns at Potterspury in Northamptonshire are reasonably well documented and it seems fairly certain that the kilns at present under discussion belonged to Leonard Benton. Their working lives began slightly before 1646 and terminated shortly after 1664. The products of the kiln are very diverse and include a great variety of the lead glazed, slip decorated wares which bear remarkable similarities to the Metropolitan wares of the London area and to the late 17th-century slip wares of Yorkshire.     

Turkish migration to Europe: Case studies

R. E. Krane, ed. Manpower Mobility across Cultural Boundaries: Social, Economic and Legal Aspects. The Case of Turkey and West Germany. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975. vi + 222 pp. Maps, tables, and bibliography. Gld. 68.

Nermin Abadan‐Unat and Contributors. Turkish Workers in Europe, 1960–1975: A Socio‐economic Reappraisal. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976. vi + 425 pp. Maps, tables, appendix, index, and bibliography. Gld. 160.     

Polesworth: a north Warwickshire country pottery

Abstract

In 1986 excavations for house foundations at Polesworth in northern Warwickshire (SK 263 980) uncovered a pottery waster dump. Fine wares, lead glazed and unglazed coarsewares, including a number a horticultural vessels, were recovered, together with kiln furniture. An archaeological excavation adjacent to the construction site revealed stratigraphy relating to the backfilling of a clay pit with potting waste early in the 18th century. Documentary and other evidence shows that the pottery was in production from the late 17th to early 19th centuries.     

Colum Giles & Mike Williams (eds), Ditherington Mill and the Industrial Revolution. Swindon: Historic England, 2015. 172 pp., 118 illus. £50. isbn 978-1-84802-118-1

Abstract

As part of the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust's survey of the Gower peninsula, a study of disused lime kilns on the peninsula's limestone belt was initiated in 1984. At its commencement the project appeared to be straightforward, but it soon expanded into an extensive study as both calculation and documentary research revealed previously unexpected aspects. An intensive map search doubled the anticipated number of kiln sites and revealed the fact that the early nineteenth century kilns were located in the portion of the limestone belt where the greatest amount of Dolomite was present, thus suggesting that the early lime burners preferred Dolomite to other limestones. Then by analysing the lime burning process and using contemporary data, the process of lime kiln development during the nineteenth century became apparent, also the possible background to statements in contemporary accounts. In addition, analytical studies also revealed why the use of Dolomite for lime production could have been an attractive alternative to using other forms of limestone. With the completion of the historical research phase, the Friends of the Trust have set up a group to visit each known site and compile the formal Sites and Monuments Record. It is anticipated that, in due course, some kilns will be excavated or renovated as appropriate. In order to maintain knowledge of kiln site locations now that reference to them will no longer be present on as maps, a list of them is being published in the 1988 issue of the journal Gower together with an article placing them in their local context.     

A scientific study of Choson white ware: early porcelain from a royal kiln at Kwangju Usanni

Scientific study of kiln site no. 9 at Usanni, one of the earliest royal Kwangju kiln complexes in operation (from the early 15th to the early 16th century), shows that the technological expertise used to produce white ware was inherited from the celadon technology of the Koryo dynasty. The body material, of low Al₂O₃ and high SiO₂ content, is based on porcelain stone. Such a material, with almost no titanium and a low level of iron, was a rediscovery of the white ware material used earlier at the Sori kiln from the 9th century through to the 11th century. Ash continued to be one of the major ingredients of the glaze, and wares were fired in much the same way as the Koryo celadon, in kilns constructed of mud and rocks and in two steps. The Confucian philosophy and aesthetic of frugality and simplicity adopted from the Ming dynasty onwards by the new government acted as the catalyst for the successful ascent of the new technology.     

Boole Reviews

Abstract

The roof of the Archaic Temple of Poseidon (early 7th century B.C.) at the Sanctuary of Poseidon on the Corinthian Isthmus in Greece was covered by unusually large terracotta tiles. The construction of a stone temple with a tile roof represented a major advance in building design. The tiles themselves are representative of the growth in technology at that time. Reproduction of the tiles was recently undertaken as a demonstration of the tools, skills, and manpower requirements of the new technology. It is shown here that a relatively small group of men using local materials could make all of the tiles and the kiln(s) to fire them in less than two years. The major innovation was the design of the mold.     

The Archaeology and Technology of Early-Modern Lime Burning in the Yorkshire Dales: Developing a Clamp Kiln Model

Abstract

Compared with commercial or field lime kilns of the industrial period, very little detailed work has been undertaken to investigate post-medieval and early modern clamp kilns apart from a few notable site-specific studies. Clamp kiln terminology thus far has been unable to distinguish between clamp, sod and sow kilns. Recent field surveying and archaeological excavation across a wide area within the Yorkshire Dales, with associated documentary and archival research, has shed new light on clamp kiln technology and morphology. The results of this work have informed the development of a provisional clamp kiln model which, it is argued, is appropriate to the Central Pennines.     

A Stamford Ware Pottery Kiln in Pontefract: A Geographical Enigma and a Dating Dilemma

Abstract

THIS REPORT PRESENTS the results of analyses carried out following the discovery and excavation of a medieval pottery kiln in Pontefract, a discovery which featured in the ‘Fieldwork Highlights’ section of Medieval Archaeology 53 (2009). The kiln is remarkable for having produced vessels previously only associated with the Stamford ware industry of the late 11th and 12th centuries and demonstrates the existence of at least one northern production site, the likely existence of which was first mooted in the 1950s. As both radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating methods indicate a last firing of the Pontefract kiln in the late pre-Conquest period, the discovery also poses questions about the chronology of Stamford ware production.     

The Musée d'Histoire des Sciences,Geneva Mathematics,light, and Pompeian delight

Abstract

The City of Geneva can be proud to have a jewel in the crown of science museums which is here described. Housed in a nineteenth century palace built in the Palladian style, the Villa Bartholoni, it displays a splendid collection of astronomical and other scientific instruments. Particularly noteworthy, as only appropriate for Geneva, is its connection with the family of de Saussure, recalling the famous eighteenth century physicist, alpinist, and meteorologist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure.     

An Anglo-Saxon dog from Salter Street,Stafford

A dog skeleton from a well-dated eleventh century context was recovered from a kiln in Stafford. The animal exhibits particular morphological characteristics, identified metrically, and their similarity to modern comparative animals is discussed. The disposition of the animal in the structure is also described and the possible circumstances of the burial considered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scottish Wooden Tumbler Locks

Abstract

A framed timber ground floor constructed over vaulted brick and stone ‘dry drains’ in 1763–4 is described. The reasons for the elaborate construction are considered, and the carpentry details are compared with those illustrated in contemporary craftsman’s copybooks. An appendix illustrates ‘Divers Manners of Scarfing Timber together’, published largely in the 18th century.     

Freedom and the Responsibility of Science Science and the Public

Abstract

Academic essays in Germany either start or end with a citation from Goethe. I cannot refrain from this tradition as I have in mind three lines which described the situation in his time and during the last century, but which no longer hold true in our changing world. This is not easy to accept, especially for a scientist.     

Waipi'o valley,a cultural kipuka in early 20th Century Hawaii

Abstract

How has it been possible for Hawaiians to persist and survive as a distinct and unique people while under direct rule by the United States of America during the 20th century? Here it is argued that just as kipuka, or oases of forest in otherwise barren lava fields, are the source for continual regeneration of the volcanic rainforest, isolated rural Hawaiian communities have served as ‘cultural kipuka’ for the regeneration of Hawaiian culture in the 20th century. To introduce this new framework of examining the history of the Hawaiian people, the history of change and continuity in the remote valley of Waipi'o is described.     

James Preston,Malting and Malthouses in Kent. Stroud: Amberley Publishing, 2015. 235 × 165mm, 93 pp., b/w and col. illus. throughout. £14.99. isbn 978-1-4456-5306-8

Abstract

Beehive coking ovens had virtually monopolised coke oven design by the middle of the nineteenth century and their physical remains have been described in several recent articles. The following account identifies an alternative oven arrangement on one of the smaller and less well known British coalfields.     

A MAGNETIC SURVEY OVER LA MAJA,AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN NORTHERN SPAIN

A Roman archaeological site in northern Spain (La Maja, province of La Rioja) includes pottery workshops, part of an important ceramic industry that developed from about the first century BC to the first century AD. A geophysical study was planned to determine the extent of the industrial complex in the vicinity of an excavated kiln. Magnetic observations were done on a grid of 30 × 36m, with a sampling interval of 1m. Two dipolar-shaped anomalies were found: one in the north-east and the other in the south-west of the area. Low-pass and band-pass filters were used in the Fourier domain to enhance the characteristics of the magnetic data and to remove noise and undesirable shallow features. Three-dimensional polygonal prisms were used to model the magnetic anomalies based on palaeomagnetic measurements performed over an uncovered kiln that helped to constrain the induced and remanent parameters of the magnetizing fields.     

Roman-Period and Byzantine Landscapes Between Sepphoris and Nazareth

Abstract

A reinterpretation of the Roman-period (late first century BC to fourth century AD) and Byzantine-period (early fifth to early seventh century AD) landscapes between Sepphoris and Nazareth, in the Lower Galilee, Israel, is presented. This derives from a multi-period archaeological survey, in September 2004 and September 2005, of a 5 km×3 km transect — Israel grid 1760–2340, 1790–2390. Some of the relevant results from the 2004–2005 seasons are outlined, rather than providing a full report on this survey, which will form part of a forthcoming PEF monograph. For this reason, survey data are described in summary form and — as it is the Roman-period and Byzantine evidence that is the focus of attention — both earlier and later material are mentioned here only in relation to those periods.