Exchanging Medieval Material Culture Studies on archaeology and ...

For the pottery workshops the main reason to settle down in
this new quarter of the town must have been the easy access
to the urban market of ’s-Hertogenbosch. Th is probably compensated
for the disadvantage of the extra transport costs for
the clay and the fuel needed as raw materials, as the subsoil of
the town itself did not contain suitable clay deposits. Probably
the clay derived from the borders of the river Meuse, a few
miles to the north. Th e transport costs of clay and fuel were
probably bearable, as most locations within this town quarter
were easily accessible by means of the diff erent waterways of
the ‘Binnendieze’.
4 The excavation of the fifteenth-century
pottery industry in the ‘Tolbrugkwartier’
4.1 Introduction
Two pottery workshops, located in the Tolbrugkwartier and
archaeologically dated to the fi rst half of the 15th century,
have been partly excavated in 1984 and 1995 (fi g. 2; fi g. 3).
Both excavations took place in the middle of a modern townscape
with concrete apartments, shops and offi ces, which had
been built aft er the complete demolition and restructuring of
this until then partly still medieval quarter of the town in the
fi ft ies and sixties of the last century. Th is modern development
in its turn was again partly demolished and redeveloped
in 1994-1996.
4.2 The excavations in 1984 and 1995: context,
general aims and results
Th e fi rst excavation in 1984 (site Pieterskerk, code dbpk32)
took place as a rescue excavation prior to the building of modern
apartment blocks on the site of the late baroque church of
St. Peter, built in 1842-43 and demolished in 1983. Th e presence
of pottery kilns on this site was unknown and quite unexpected.
Th e aim of the Pieterskerk excavation was to establish
the exact location and stratigraphical position of the fi rst town
wall and ditch of ’s-Hertogenbosch, constructed in the beginning
of the 13th century. Excavations from 1972 onwards had
revealed the general layout and construction of this town wall
and from extrapolation of the then known information its
presence on this site could be expected33. As the archaeological
layers on the site had been destructed to a great depth as a
result of the building and subsequent demolition of the church,
the excavation was concentrated on two long and narrow strips
to the south and the north of the original church (fi g. 4).
Indeed, the excavation delivered the expected remains of the
town wall (fi g. 5; fi g. 6), in addition to parts of the town ditch,
which could be sectioned. Th e parts of the wall which were
32 Th e excavation took place from 27/08/1984 to
18/12/1984 with a short extension from 23/02/1985
to 01/03/1985. Th e excavation was organised and
paid for by the municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch.
Director of excavations H.L. Janssen, municipal
archaeologist; site supervisor E. Nijhof.
33 Janssen 1983d; Idem 2007, 110-111.
34 Th e brick sizes of the town-wall were
27.5/29.5x13.5/14.5x6.5/8.0 cm. Th e most frequent
size was 28.5x14.3x7.3 cm. Th e bond applied was
the so-called Flemish bond.
Fifteenth century pottery production in ’s-Hertogenbosch 97
fig. 3 Location of the excavated areas within the Tolbrugkwartier.
1: excavation Pieterskerk 1984; 2: excavation Loeff plein 1994-1996;
a: parts of the excavations with the remains of pottery production,
excavated in 1984 (dbpk) and 1995(dblo); b: excavated parts
where pottery production remains are absent; c: present-day
built-up area. Drawing F.C. Schipper (bam), Municipality of
’s-Hertogenbosch.
preserved, consisting of fi ve piers with fragments of underground
arches springing from them, could be documented34.
A separate feature consisted of the remains of a 14th-century
brick-built house, (F-252; measuring c. 5.25 m x more than
9.60 m outward appearance), free standing on the inside of the
town wall and provided with a brick paved hearth along the
west side35. Another feature was the occurrence of a rectangular
brick-built cesspit (F-33)36 on the inside of the town wall under
one of its arches, possibly belonging to the house mentioned
35 Th e brick sizes of this building were
27.0/28.5x13.0/14x5.5/6.5 cm.
36 Brick sizes 24.0/25.5x11.5/12.0x4.5/5.5 cm.