Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

dominant smaller brick size is characteristic for the period
around 140052. Th e building has known at least two periods of
functioning, corresponding with two levels of pavement, only
the last of which can be tied with certainty to the functioning
of the pottery workshop. Th e building was demolished almost
contemporaneously with the construction of the St. Elisabeth
Bloemkamp nunnery, as the occupation layer, covering the
foundation trench of the nunnery was identical with the demolition
layer of the pottery workshop.
Th e interpretation of the working life of the pottery workshop
was hampered by the fact that the demolition of the concrete
offi ce blocks belonging to the modern police headquarters
built in the seventies and demolished in the early nineties, had
left a crater-like landscape with partially preserved medieval
layers (varying between c. 3.80 and 4.20 m +nap), punctured
by modern disturbances. Fragments of the fi rst fl oor within
this workshop, consisting of bricks, were situated at 3.46 m
+nap53. Fragments of brick pavements outside the building,
north-east of it on the neighbouring parcel were encountered
at 3.30 and 3.42 m +nap (F-13054 and F13155). Fragments of a
second fl oor within the workshop (F-12956) could be documented
around 3.70 m +nap. A tiny fragment of an even
higher fl oor-level (F-13257) was noticed between 3.83 to 3.89 m
+nap. Outside the building on the same parcel fragments of a
second brick pavement could be recorded varying between 3.68
to 3.78 m +nap (F-13858). So it seems two general fl oor levels
were present inside the house, an earlier around 3.46 m +nap
and a later one around 3.70 m +nap. Th ese levels could correspond
with two levels of pavement outside the house: the lower
one from 3.30 to 3.42 m +nap, the second one between 3.68 to
3.78 m +nap. It is only the second (higher) level of pavement
in- and outside the workshop, which can be tied with certainty
to the activities of the pottery workshop. It might be possible
this higher fl oor level was raised in a later phase to a level
52 Janssen 1986, 77.
53 Th e situation on this level on the parcel of the
pottery workshop is not illustrated. Very little of it
remained, due to the later medieval disturbances.
Fragments of pavements, however, could be
recorded (F-614).
54 Brick sizes 22.0x10.5/11x4.0/4.5 cm.
55 Brick sizes 23.5x11.0/12.0x4.5/5.5 cm.
Fifteenth century pottery production in ’s-Hertogenbosch 107
Fig. 14 Excavation Loeff plein kiln (1995).
Th e central area with burnt and baked loam,
remaining aft er the demolishment of a number
of each succeeding kilns. Photograph bam,
Municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch.
between 3.83-3.89 m +nap. Between the garden wall F-42 and
the pottery workshop an opening, probably a door was present.
Despite some modern disturbance fragments of a possible stair
could be noted with a fragmentary step on 4.00 m +nap.
Apart from all sorts of recent disturbance the fragmentation
of the levels of the workshop and the work fl oor outside the
building has mainly been caused by a great number of 15thcentury
pits fi lled with the waste of misfi red pottery and
demolished kilns. Th ese pits had been dug during the last
phases of the pottery workshop and had destroyed most traces
of earlier activities. Th ey can be divided in diff erent chronological
groups. Firstly it concerns pit F-148. Although this pit
has been secondarily fi lled with waste material of the kiln, it
was originally a steep, probably wood-lined pit of 1.10 m deep,
inserted within pavement F-138 and dug in from this level
(c. 3.70 m +nap). As the inside of this pit was surrounded with
a lining of clay, its original function might have been a pit,
in which the potter collected the clay for his activities. Th is
lining of clay within the pit and a secondary fi ll with waste
material was also encountered within pit F-106. Th is pit also
might originally have been a clay pit for the potter, but the
original level from where the pit was dug in, could not be
established anymore due to later disturbance. Th e same might
apply to pit F-146 and F115.
Th e other pits fi lled with wasters dug in within and outside the
workshop and around the location of the kiln were dug aft er
the demolition of the workshop. Th e earliest of these pits
(F-151, F-136, F-147, F-97 and F-120) were dug from or just
above the pavement and/or occupation level varying between
c. 3.70 m +nap and 3.80 m +nap. Associated with this same
level but dug from c. 10 cm higher and perhaps statigraphically
a fraction later were the pits F-123, F-127 and F-133 within the
workshop, while F-127, cutting through F-133, is stratigraphi-
56 Brick sizes (fragmented) 10.5/11.0x 4.5/5.0 cm.
57 Brick sizes (fragmented) 10.0/10.6x4.7/4.8 cm
and 11.7/12.0x4.8/5.7 cm.
58 Brick sizes 22.0x9.5/10.0x4.5/5.5 cm.