dAf 55
FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE François
Ateliers de potiers médiévaux en Bretagne
A research project carried out between 1984 et 1989 permitted a multidisciplinary approach to the problem of the history of medieval pottery production centres in Brittany to be studied by a dialogue between history, archaeology and archeometry. Diachronic studies of the written sources (14th-20th centuries), fieldwork and studies of the geological and archaeological environment were systematically carried out, the excavation of two Carolingian production sites (Meudon near Vannes and Planguenoual, Côtes D’Armor° or from 11th-12th centuries (Fontenay in Chartres-de-Bretagne) ; these being axed on the totality of the workshop structures and not only on the kilns, the analysis of the products (morphological analysis, petrographical characterisation and archeomagnetic dating). This research, feed by methodological techniques, comprises ten contributions each reflecting the diverse approaches and the renewal of interest in the history of pottery workshops and centres in Brittany.
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
P. ANDRÉ, J. COQUET, F. FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE, P.-R. GIOT, L. LANGOUËT, P. LANOS, G. LEROUX, H. MORZADEC
Using systematic research to study medieval pottery workshops in Brittany, several approaches have been amalgamated and made use of: an analysis of various medieval or postmedieval archival documents, an examination of the bibliography, the use of placenames, the topography of the land (its geological features, the distribution of unpublished sites, an examination of identified sites) and the excavation itself.
Part 1 - Written Sources
1. The Pottery Craftsmen of Brittany in xve s. : Pottersand Tilers
F. FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE, L. BEUCHET
The archives of Brittany countain exceptional records from the 15th century for studying the pottery craftsmen; however these are confined to six local centres out of nineteen through research or excavations. In this period progress in keeping records has made it possible to follow the social and economic evolution of the pottery centres at Chartres-de-Bretagne and La Poterie Lamballe. The documentation provides data on the right of access (by no means free) to clay and wood, on the structure of production units, on the training and the role of the pottery craftsmen and on the profession itself at the heart of the agricultural world. The texts recall the methods of marketing for these products, their nature and prices. The 15th century appears to have been a turning point, with the creation of guilds and internal rules aimed at controlling the activity and the number of workers. The first wave of merchant potters appeared and real pottery dynasties were created. The evolution towards a specialised activity and not just a subsidiary trade had not yet been achieved but the development was underway.
2. The Pottery Center of Malansac (Morbihan) (end of 17th- beg. of 20th c.)
P. ANDRÉ
For several centuries up to 1900 Malansac (east of Vannes), was one of rare pottery centres of the southern region of Brittany. Written sources allow us to reconstitute in part the social life of potters, which were often despised by the rural community surrounding them. They constituted an isolated group, often suffering hardship. The objects which they produced suffered from competition at the end of the 19th century with new products, which brought to close an activity which is forgotten today, to the point of oblivion.
Part 2 - Productions
1. Some Aspects of Ceramic Production in Brittany (5th-15th C.)
P.-R. GIOT, F. FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE
We are ignorant of nearly all the development of pottery in Armorique from the 5th to the 9th century and a similar development in the Breton peninsular remains to be explored. The presence of hand-made pottery at Miniac-Morvan from the 5th century, of rare fragments of Saxon pottery and mediterranean products (African stamp decorated amphora B2) at Corseul and on the isle of Lavret remain insufficient to support such as hypothesis. From the 9th century two very different areas of production can be perceived, separated by a line running from Redon to Lamballe. The western area is marked by the French influence and the forms are characteristic of pottery from the north-west of Europe from the 9th to the 15th century. The Eastern or “ bretonnante" area is marked by the fact that pottery was seen as a less important part of domestic goods which remain faithful up to the 15th-16th centuries to rims with rectangular profile and to shapes more directly inherited from or influenced by insular Brittany.
2. Carolingian Pottery Workshop from Meudon to Vannes (Morbihan)
A. TRISTE, D. TAQUET, F. FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE
The workshop of Meudon near to Vannes (Morbihan) was active between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 10th century. The plan of the structure bought to light over more than 1000 m2 seems to show a site divided into three parts which one gained access by a bordered by small ditches. The backbone is made up of an area where eight kilns are in a line, five with one oven and three with multiple ovens, some of which were operational at the same time. Several structures have been identified in the kiln area and amongst these a ditch full of clay and two mounds mad of a mixture of sand and clay. To the South two areas with many post-holes are separated by a ditch. Only one ground plan of a building has been discovered. Situated in the east area, marked out by eight postholes and a trench with a low sandpit, it measures 5 m. long by 3.40 m. wide, with two small rooms and a stone working area. The production, consisting exclusively of cooking and storage .. vessels, includes a limited number of forms (five), often decorated with geometric motifs (more than hundred listed, subdivided into five groups) rouletted on the rim. These products were distributed throughout the Vannes area, Vannes itself being undoubtedly the principal centre of production.
3. Carolingian Workshops in Upper Brittany
L. LANGOUËT, C. BIZIENJAGLlN, P. LANOS
The excavation of three pottery workshops in the north of Upper Britanny from the Carolingian period has given precise data on the kilns, on the products (from analysis of the wasters), on the time-scale of the production and on the distribution.
4. Pottery Workshop of Chartres-de-Bretagne (Îlle-et-Vilaine) in 11th-12th C. The Worksohp 1 in Fontenay
F. FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE, L. BEUCHET
Dating at the very latest from the end of the 11th century or from the beginning of the 12th, pottery workshop is a small rural workshop, the oldest one at the present time to be excavated on the pottery site of Fontenay. The excavation has revealed a small number of structures which, apart from the kilns, are relatively simple. The burning area includes three longitudinal kilns with horizontal flues. They are situated between a space for extracting sand and clay at the North and in the South, a working area includes at least one building indicated by post-holes, which could have sheltered a potter's wheel. The production, which consists essentially of burning and storage wares, as well as candlesticks (jugs, bowls, basins etc.) making altogether about a dozen shapes, is rarely decorated but similar to those of the Carolingian workshops of Upper Brittany.
5. "Greasy" Pottery
P.-R. GIOT, H. MORZADEC
This original product, which looks very crude, comes from pottery workshops in the south-west of Finistere. It is made from material derived from basic rocks (Cambrian?) and is a very good example of success due to the specific qualities of the material. Formed from a mix of fragments of talc (magnesium sulphate) in a matrix of naturally occuring chlorite, this mixture, apparently weak, has by its density an extreme resistance of thermal shocks. The article takes stock of the mineralogy and the geochemistry of the material as well as the stapes of the vessels, the dating (from Xth century to the XVIth) and its distribution.
Part 3 - Laboratory Datum
1. Archeomagnetic Analysis and Dating. Some Workshops in upper Brittany
P. LANOS
Four medieval pottery workshop in Upper Brittany have been the subject of archeomagnetic analysis as well as radiocarbon dating and thermoluminescence. These sites are in Trans, Guipel, Chartres-de-Bretagne (Îlle-et- Vilaine) and Meudon (Morbihan). After a resume of the development, in France, of archeomagnetic methods for dating as applied to burnt clays and report of the latest advances concerning polarisation / magnetisation which are fundamental to obtain a reliable dating, a critical account is given of the work done at each of the four workshops. In each case, there is a discussion on the comparison of chronological results obtained by the different methods and a comparison of the results of archeomagnetic testing of different types of samples. We would also draw the reader's attention to the progress and the current state of research into archeomagnetic analysis. We are able to show how the reliability of this method depends as much on archaeologists as physicians and that it is in both their interest to collaborate closely.
2. Petrographic Characterization of Ceramics from Brittany
P.-R. GIOT, H. MORZADEC
Coarse pottery, with many inclusions derived from the rocks of the Armorican massif, is the chosen subject for petrographic analysis. The thin slices, complemented by other methods, are very informative. As an example of pottery made with a sedimentary clay which is also degraded, that of Landéan (Îlle-et-Vilaine) is examined : The group of pottery made of plio-pleistocène clay with siliceous spines of sponges has a very characteristic appearance all around the Armorican massif, illustrated by the workshops at St-Jean-la-Poterie and Malansac (Morbihan) and rather more limited examples at Corseul (Côtes-d'Armor) and Landerneau (Finistère). The examples of the workshops at Chartres-de-Bretagne are poor in spines for in using pliocène clays and altered clays these only show as rolled mineral particles in the alluvium. The pottery made with these altered clays from a crystalline base with acid rocks are more especially identified where one finds fragments of rock and not only isolated mineral particles. Several Carolingian workshops have been examined in this way. pottery deriving from basic crystalline rock material (clay and inclusions) gives the best characterization, as the workshops around La Poterie Lamballe and Pabu-Guingamp (Côtes-d'Armor) demonstrate.
