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Post-Medieval Maltese Earthenware and its Makers: Unearthing a Forgotten Industry

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Abstract

Maltese earthenware makers produced a range of utilitarian wares that formed a crucial part of the islanders’ foodways for much of the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries. Despite the industry’s social significance, archaeologists have hitherto refrained from giving these mundane items any serious consideration. In this paper I present the first detailed account of post-medieval Maltese earthenware, providing a categorization of fabrics and vessel typology, as well as considering the potters and the scale of their domestic industry.

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Acknowledgments

The assemblages on which this article is based are curated by Heritage Malta, without whose help and willingness my research would not have been possible. I would like to thank Ghent University (Commissie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek and Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds, grant number 01DI3115) and the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO, grant number K20815 N) for providing funding my research visits to Malta, during which I recorded the finds and for funding archaeometric analysis of sample sherds at the University of Catania (which was also supported by research funding of DSBGA, University of Catania). Thanks go to Wim De Clercq and Simona Raneri, and Heritage Malta curators Kenneth Cassar and Liam Gauci, without whose support and flexibility the project would never have come to fruition. I am grateful to the two anonymous reviews for their comments, all errors and omissions remain my own.

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  1. School of Foreign Studies, Shanghai University of Finance and Economic, 777 Guoding Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200433, Peoples, Republic of China

    Russell Palmer

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Palmer, R. Post-Medieval Maltese Earthenware and its Makers: Unearthing a Forgotten Industry. Int J Histor Archaeol 24, 422–455 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-019-00512-z

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