Michael Hughes

Posted with consent of editors after three-year embargo.

Read revised full version of this paper at (da leggere la versione completa e riveduta di questa relazione a):
Hugo Blake & Michael J. Hughes (2017) ‘The Good Woman: the provenance and purpose of Montelupo oil jars’, Post-Medieval Archaeology, 51:1, pp. 1-42, DOI: 10.1080/00794236.2017.1309247
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Riassunto: L’origine toscana, e specificamente di Montelupo, di un tipo di orcio grande rinvenuto in tutto il mondo, è stata confermata circa 20 anni fa dall’analisi di attivazione neutronica, anche se alcuni archeologi continuano a chiamarlo ancora ‘orcio di immagazzinamento iberica’. La presente relazione offre i dati analitici inediti di alcuni reperti inglesi, di uno australiano e di uno giamaicano. Inoltre prendendo l’avvio dal lavoro di Ronald Coleman sul ruolo della marina inglese nella loro diffusione, riconsidera quale olio contenevano, utilizzando le fonti scritte italiane. Queste mostrano che nel XVIII secolo Montelupo spediva coppi lungo l’Arno e la rete di canali del Valdarno inferiore a Lucca, dove si faceva il miglior olio d’oliva italiano, e a Livorno, allora il più grande emporio del Mediterraneo per il commercio di transito e dotato di un enorme magazzino per custodire l’olio più economico proveniente dalla Liguria e dal Meridione. Il porto franco cosmopolita, tollerante e neutrale di Livorno è stato la base principale di commercio della Gran Bretagna nel Mediterraneo, da dove entrambe le qualità di olio d’oliva erano spedite. A Londra gli orci diventarono un segno riconosciuto con diversi significati culturali, alto e popolare.

Blake, H. and Hughes, M. J. (2019) ‘An “early 14th–century” tin-glazed earthenware jar from Norwich and other Archaic Maiolicas excavated in the British Isles’, in J. Edwards and S. Paynter (eds) Ceramics & glass: a tribute to Sarah Jennings. London: Medieval Pottery Research Group, pp. 71–95. ISBN 978-1-5272-3770-4
Posted with the consent of the editors and MPRG
A jar published by Sarah Jennings is the point of departure for a discussion of what John Hurst first identified as Mediterranean Maiolica and the English examples he had analysed. As he anticipated, their chemical composition shows that most came from Tuscany. A couple were made elsewhere in Italy and two are of unknown origin. The recognisable 13th- and 14th-century forms found in the British Isles are jars, whose distinctive form and decoration may have been derived from Near Eastern vases. The less extensively distributed and poorer quality 15th- and 16th-century type consists of jugs and bowls. The jars may have enhanced their contents, whether given or sold, whereas the tableware may have been a low-value private trade or imported as personal possessions.

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The Tuscan origin of the characteristic large oil jars found all over the world was confirmed by neutron activation analysis about 20 years ago, although some still call them Iberian storage jars. Our paper presents the unpublished analytical data and considers whose oil they contained. Italian records show that in the 18th century Montelupo despatched coppi (jars) down the River Arno to Lucca, where the best Italian olive oil was produced, and to Livorno (Leghorn), then the largest emporium in the Mediterranean for transit trade. In London, the jars became a familiar sight with different high and popular cultural meanings.