Modern Pottery

Επεξεργασία της εργασίας μου του Μ.Τ.Σ. στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο, με τίτλο "ΤΑ ΚΕΡΑΜΙΚΑ ΕΡΓΑΣΤΗΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΝΗΣΟΥ ΛΕΣΒΟΥ" (υπό τον κ. Παπανικολάου).
Επιμέλεια έκδοσης: Ηλίας Μέλιος

ΣΗΜΕΙΩΣΗ ΣΥΓΓΡΑΦΕΑ: Από τον κ. Ηλία Κουρτζή, δια της ομάδος του facebook "Potters and Pottery of Greece", έλαβα το παρακάτω σχόλιο που αφορά την παρούσα δημοσίευση (την οποία είχα κοινοποιήσει στον "τοίχο" της ομάδος). Το παραθέτω, λοιπόν, ασχολίαστο, διότι α) θεωρώ δίκαιο να γνωρίζει ο προσερχόμενος στην έρευνα όλες τις διαθέσιμες γνώμες γι' αυτήν, και β) θεωρώ ότι θα πρέπει συνεχώς να εμπλουτίζουμε και να δημοσιοποιούμε όλην την διαθέσιμη βιβλιογραφία και τις αναφορές που σχετίζονται με την έρευνά μας, οιασδήποτε μορφής, όποια και να είναι η γνώμη μας γι' αυτές. Αυτό, ίσα-ίσα, είναι το κριτήριο της εκτίμησης που εμείς οι ίδιοι τρέφουμε για την έρευνά μας.
"Προς τον κ. Σωτήρη Ραπτόπουλο, θέλω να είμαι ειλικρινής μαζί σας, σεβόμενος την συμπαθητική προσπάθειά σας και την διαφαινόμενη αγάπη σας για την λαϊκή κεραμική... Διάβασα ευάριθμες φορές το πόνημα σας που δημοσιεύσατε και παρά τις ενδιαφέρουσες πληροφορίες που έχετε όντως διασώσει σ' αυτό, θα έλεγα ότι μου έδωσε την εντύπωση ότι εν πολλοίς είναι γραμμένο "στο γόνατο": Διέκρινα λάθη τα οποία ίσως παρεισέφρυσαν, κατά περίπτωση, από κακή ή πλημμελή ή εσκεμμένη πληροφόρηση ή αποτύπωση της πληροφόρησης. Επίσης κάποιες καταγραφές ή απουσία καταγραφών, δεοντολογικά δεν αρμόζουν νομίζω στο πνεύμα μιας σοβαρής, αντικειμενικής μελέτης. Και κλείνοντας: Συγκεκριμένα θεωρώ ότι αδικήσατε την Αγιάσο (το αρχαιότερο κέντρο κεραμικής της Λέσβου) και συνάμα τους προγόνους μου τους Κουρτζήδες (που δημιούργησαν πριν περίπου δυο αιώνες στην γραφική Αγιάσο την αρχαιότερη οικοτεχνία κεραμικής της χώρας). Δεν πειράζει όμως, τέτοια περιστατικά ενδημούν και σε πολύ σημαντικά έντυπα (λευκώματα και μονογραφίες), και πρέπει να αντιμετωπίζονται με ανθρώπινη διάκριση και κατανόηση. Εξάλλου κανείς συγγραφέας και κανένα σύγγραμμα δεν μπορεί να αλλάξει την αλήθεια της ιστορίας. Στη διάθεσή σας για ό,τιδήποτε θεωρήσετε ότι μπορώ να σας φανώ χρήσιμος... Ερρωσο!".

RESUMEN: a partir de piezas y fragmentos cerámicos en- contrados en labores de carácter arqueológico realizadas en el entorno de la muralla occi- dental de Almazán (Soria), se dan a conocer por primera vez elementos de la producción de cerámicas que imitaban la loza de Talavera, también llamada de contrahechas talaveranas. El conjunto cerámico, que se fecha entre los siglos XVII y XVIII, apareció en varios testares y está formado por piezas típicas del trabajo alfarero (atifles y cobijas) y desechos de horno (cerámica bizcochada, loza con vedrío blanco y decoraciones típicas de la producción talaverana de las series azul y tricolor).
SUMMARY: from pieces and ceramic fragments found in archaeological fieldwork carried out around the western wall of Almazán (Soria), it is made known for the first time elements from the production of ceramics that imitate Talavera earthenware, also known as contrahechas. The ceramic ensemble, dated between the 17th and 18th centuries, appeared in several testers, and is made up of pieces that are typical of pottery work (atifles and saggars) and kiln waste (biscuit ceramics, white glazed earthenware and blue and tricolour series Talavera production.

From the Modern Age until the mid-twentieth century, in Spain and other European countries, a funerary ritual was practiced halfway between the religious and the pagan. In the Iberian Peninsula, his memory is still traced in the oral tradition among the elderly. In the ritual were used containers with salt that were placed on top of the deceased during the wake or the funeral. On other occasions, the containers were introduced into the tomb. Although the justification was that the salt prevented the body from swelling, the objective was to prevent the spirit from returning to the body, favouring transit to the beyond or warding off the forces of evil. Sometimes they put open scissors in the shape of a cross on the bowl or the plate. The practice was favoured in Baroque times with the increase of concern for the transit of the soul to the beyond. The fear was based on the belief that the dead do not suddenly leave the world of the living, but reaches an intermediate stage that lasts the time that the body takes to decompose. As long as the dead man’s face retains his human features, his soul will be in danger. The salt acts as a protective element. The ritual was applied to both men and women, of all social classes, who lived in rural or urban areas. Among the written testimonies stands out a poem by Federico García Lorca, this describes the ritual in a wake, and a document of the War of Independence, on the funeral of an English general in the monastery of El Escorial (Madrid) in 1812. The pottery from the archaeological excavation of the ossuary of the church of Quintanalara (Burgos) -its origin, dispersion and its conception as everyday elements vs. funerary-, serves as a case study to deepen in this funerary ritual so scarcely known and studied as geographically extended, delimit it from the chronological and spatial point of view, and investigate its origin and meaning. Among the pottery productions are documented typical containers from pottery workshops of Villafeliche (Zaragoza), Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) and Olleros-Olivares (Salamanca-Zamora).

This chapter presents a general description of the pottery found in the course of archaeological research on the historic battlefield for the Bolimów bridgehead during the First World War. In total, 177 fragments were recovered. The excavated assemblage contains sherds from a number of periods, some of them are prehistoric and early medieval products, others date to the late medieval and early modern times, but the bulk were from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of the artefacts are ceramic vessels of various functions and forms (146 items), mainly pots, the rest are ceramic items used for a different purpose (31 pieces), including: tobacco pipe, gaming piece, a photo frame, figurine, bottle stopper, pipes for sanitary installations, insulators. They are described according to functional groups, indicating their most important stylistic and formal features. Items of special cognitive value were also indicated in the collection and are illustrated here. Five artefacts were considered as “special finds” due to their characteristics compared to other finds, i.e. good condition, provenance, form and decorations.

L’affinarsi delle tecniche di analisi nel corso degli anni ha permesso di specificare sempre di più i caratteri esclusivi dei prodotti pisani rispetto a quelli regionali ed extra-regionali: in breve si ripercorrono le varie tappe e si aggiornano i dati sulla produzione di ceramica a Pisa tra Medioevo ed Età moderna.

Apresentam-se os primeiros resultados da escavação arqueológica da área de Arqueologia da Universidade de Cadiz,
em operação desde 2010, no Teatro Romano de Cádiz. O presente texto centra-se na ocupação moderna e contemporânea, um reflexo da importância económica da cidade como porto de entrada de produtos estrangeiros. Esta questão será abordada a partir do ponto de vista arqueológico e histórico, conectado com o importante legado arquitectónico visível na área, como a Posada del Mesón.

Dins de l'àmbit dels estudis previs que l'empresa
propietària de l'edifici, ORDISA, encarregà a diversos
professionals, es va considerar la necessitat d'incloure els
d'àmbit arqueològic. Aquests estudis, sobre els quals no s'ha
de perdre de vista el seu caràcter preliminar, proporcionen
unes primeres dades arqueològiques i arquitectòniques sobre el
conjunt de l'edifici, fins ara gairebé inaccessibles degut a la
pervivència de l'activitat conventual fins l'any 2001 en què les
darreres quatre menoretes restants de la comunitat es
traslladaren definitivament al monestir homònim de la vila de
Canals.
Actes de les III Jornades d'Art Xàtiva 2, 3 i 4 d'agost de 2011

The island of Lesvos in the Eastern Aegean has been prominent on our TV screens during the human migration towards Europe. It is not the first such mass movement that this area has suffered, which may account for the extraordinary way in which the islanders have come to the aid of refugees. The last major population movement in the area, as a result of the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, comprised the 'exchange' of around two million Christians, forced out of Asia Minor, East Thrace and the Black Sea littoral, as the Ottoman empire collapsed, with one million Muslims from the emerging Greek nation forcibly transferred to what is now present day Turkey. Inevitably some of those transferred were craftspeople engaged in the production of distinctive items of material culture, moved to a wholly new environment. This paper discusses this phenomenon and specifically the case of potters. Some of the potters came from Canakkale, and Kutahya in present day Turkey, working in the tradition of bizarre glazed wares in the first case and a tradition based on the highly decorative Iznik pottery of the Ottoman Court in the latter. They settled on some of the East Aegean islands, including Mytilene, which already had a large number of active workshops producing utilitarian pottery, notably water jars, but including cooking vessels. Several generations later, the present study of individual potters, their products, practices and motivations builds on rich ethnographic study on the island by a variety of scholars. Pottery vessels on the island provide a window onto the construction of tradition, contested ceramic landscapes, intrusive traditions are (re)-housed within a new home. The shape and decoration of vessels, the way they are fired, even their raw materials become arenas for the negotiation of identity. It also provides insight of the differences between local and national (state) narratives of tradition and how heritage should be conserved. This report of ongoing research examines different narratives, involving individual potters in relation to the modern Greek state, placing value on 'tradition' and 'authenticity'. The idea promoted by heritage organisations of 'tradition' as static and something to be preserved contrasts with the economic reality of life as a potter. The tensions highlighted by terminologies of inclusion or exclusion, whether that be potters versus ceramicists, craft versus art, reveal a fluidity of materials, practice and identity in which the 'foreign' becomes incorporated and, in some cases, becomes the paradigm of tradition.

Il caso studio presentato in questa sede esporrà le problematicità riscontrate nella ricostruzione della produzione ceramica a Pisa tra XV e XVI secolo laddove l’evoluzione degli studi e l’apertura di nuovi scavi stratigrafici nel centro urbano negli ultimi quindici anni hanno permesso l’acquisizione di nuove conoscenze e di individuare una discrasia nelle considerazioni tratte in passato. Solo attraverso l’integrazione di tutte le fonti passate e presenti (archeologiche, storiche, documentarie) è stato possibile ottenere una lettura corretta ed omogenea di vecchie e nuove informazioni, dimostrando come la smaltatura sia in uso a Pisa sino alla fine del XVI secolo e come la diversificazione delle classi ceramiche ingobbiate si sviluppi solo con gli inizi del Cinquecento.

Φωτογραφικό άλμπουμ, των διαφανειών που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν στην παρουσίοασή μου του Α' κύκλου διαλέξεων του περιοδικού "ΠΕΡΙΑΠΤΟ" (Φεβ./Απρ. 1999), με τίτλο "ΤΑ ΛΑΪΚΑ ΚΕΡΑΜΕΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΜΥΤΙΛΗΝΗΣ". Ο ίδιος τίτλος χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την έκδοσή μου του 2005 για την κεραμική στην Μυτιλήνη (εκεί, παρουσίασα μόνον σχέδια). Πρόκειται για ανέκδοτες, μέχρι σήμερα, φωτογραφίες που ελήφθησαν το 1989, για την εργασία μου του Μ.Τ.Σ. στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο (έτος παρουσίασης: 1991, καθηγητής κ. Παπανικολάου).

Dins de l'àmbit dels estudis previs que l'empresa propietària de l'edifici, ORDISA, encarregà a diversos professionals, es va considerar la necessitat d'incloure els d'àmbit arqueològic. Aquests estudis, sobre els quals no s'ha de perdre de vista el seu caràcter preliminar, proporcionen unes primeres dades arqueològiques i arquitectòniques sobre el conjunt de l'edifici, fins ara gairebé inaccessibles degut a la pervivència de l'activitat conventual fins l'any 2001 en què les darreres quatre menoretes restants de la comunitat es traslladaren definitivament al monestir homònim de la vila de Canals. Actes de les III Jornades d'Art Xàtiva 2, 3 i 4 d'agost de 2011

L'intervention préventive réalisée au printemps 2012 dans la cour intérieure des immeubles 12 et 14 de la rue Etienne-Dumont permet de compléter, bien que modestement, la connaissance des vestiges antiques de ce secteur de la Vieille-Ville de Genève FIG 1. Elle a également mis au jour un important lot de céramiques du 18e siècle. Cet ensemble clos provient d’une fosse partiellement fouillée dans le cadre de nos investigations. La collection de récipients réunie contribue de manière significative à la compréhension de l’évolution de ce matériel à Genève et constitue un ensemble caractéristique de la période considérée.