Luxury Pottery Goods from Late Medieval Potteries at Mayen (Lkr. Mayen-Koblenz). Remarks on Settlement, Workshops and Two Jug Fragments with Anthropomorphic Decorations

Abstract

In the late Middle Ages the supra-regionally important potteries at Mayen continued to produce large quantities. Mass production for daily use aside, exquisite single pieces with anthropomorphic decorations were manufactured and should be regarded as luxury pottery goods. The face presentations of the two vessels from Mayen indicate a wealthy user group. Such vessels might have been deployed at festivities of bourgeoisie, clergy and aristocracy serving as a representation of the new self esteem of the social elites. This new facet of late medieval pottery adornment is likely to have been triggered by oriental vessels which found their way to Europe during the second and third crusade. This type of decoration also became popular in the Rhineland since it enabled a plastic visualisation of the new and self-assertive perspective of the upper class and its self-presentation.