LUSTRE-DECORATED CERAMICS FROM A 15TH TO 16TH CENTURY PRODUCTION IN SEVILLE*

A set of 17 fragments of ceramics have been uncovered on the occasion of excavations of a workshop in Triana near Seville. These ceramics are typical of objects that are not commonly encountered in present collections in spite of intensive production during the 15th–16th centuries. Chemical and mineralogical analyses have been performed using various techniques (X-ray fluorescence and diffraction, SEM, ion beam analyses). The majority of the ceramic sherds represent the diversity of the Seville production; three fragments recovered in the same archaeological context were not locally produced and belong to the production of eastern Spain (Valence area). The ceramic bodies of the Seville sherds are compatible with the use of clays from the Guadalquivir valley. The glaze and the lustre decoration are comparable to those produced in eastern Spain. These conclusions are based on data that represent the production of a single workshop in Seville; the scatter of the data is due to variations in the processing and/or to alterations during the five centuries of burial of the ceramic fragments.