Ceramics are one of the most abundant and enduring artifact types left by ancient people and consequently one of the most informative for archaeological study. The development of ceramic technology revolutionized food preparation and storage and these pottery vessels were (and still are) appreciated for both their functional and aesthetic properties (P. Rice 1987; Shepard 1976). Ancient ceramic production was a complex and creative craft and the resulting pottery vessels exhibit considerable variation. Shared ceramic technological traditions resulted in relatively uniform pottery styles that are reflective of the social and subsistence needs of the society. Significant homogeneity in ceramic technology over large regions can be an indicator of shared cultural traditions and social cohesiveness. In contrast, significant variations in ceramic technologies may be indicators of diverse functional and stylistic traditions and the presence of different social and ethnic groups. These ceramics studies and the interpretive results provide a view into the past and take on increased importance when the cultural groups studied were lacking primary written histories.
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The Ceramic Technologies Digital Library (CTDL) is a digital library for the classification and cultural analysis of historical ceramic technologies from Central Europe, particularly the Germania-Slavica area, for the Middle Age period (ca. AD 600 – 1400). The library is created, maintained, and managed by the Historisches Institut at EMA Greifswald University (EMAG), Germany in joint partnership with the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM), the Archeological Research Institute (ARI) at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe, Arizona, USA, and the Roskilde University Center (RUC), Denmark. The project is base-funded through a grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the Scientific Literature Supply and Information Systems (LIS 2) scheme.
The Germania-Slavica study area comprises the parts of today’s Germany earlier inhabited by Slavic groups including: Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen, parts of Bayern and the Rügen and Fehmarn Islands. However, the Germania-Slavica study area is adjacent to other areas of interest that display collections of Slavic ceramics; these are known around the Baltic Sea under the generic name of Baltic Ware (especially in modern Denmark and Southern Sweden); across the whole Central and Eastern Europe from the Polish and Lithuanian Baltic coast down to the North Adriatic coastline, and as far as the Black Sea area and the Volga River. All these areas hold to various degrees significant collections of Slavic ceramics. This map shows only the core-area of the Germania-Slavica study area.
June 26, 2007
