Marcel Zanjani / LVR-Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege im Rheinland
6th-7th November 2025
Aachen – Aken – Aix-la-Chapelle
Along the Meuse and Rhine rivers and the surrounding countryside pottery production has a long tradition going back to Roman times and even beyond. High quality
clays, large woodlands and good transport routes on the two rivers promoted an
intense production and regional or international distribution of pottery.
The different pottery workshops competed for markets, but were also in close contact with each other. They adapted new kiln technologies and copied vessel forms
and decoration patterns. At least for the post-medieval period we can get a glimpse
of these contacts between different workshops, as historic sources report of the
high mobility of potters. However, these migrations and influences did not always
run in the same direction. While in the early Middle Ages many impulses seem
to have come from northern France and Belgium to the Rhineland, potters from
Frechen and the Westerwald emigrated to Belgium or England in the 17th and 18th
centuries to set up new businesses there.
The conference will bring together archaeologists working on ceramics from the
early medieval to the modern period, to provide an overview on newly excavated
finds or new research on long known sites. Questions of innovation and adaptation, role model and copy, distribution and consumption will be explored both on
production and consumer sites in Belgium, western Germany and the Netherlands.
We encourage everybody interested in the topic to send their abstract of no more
than 250 words by 15.5.2025 to Bartmann.abr@lvr.de. The conference will be
held in English. The conference fee will be 50 EUR, covering the coffee breaks and
trivialities.
