Cerámica de importación en el Principado de Asturias entre la Baja Edad Media y la primera Edad Moderna

Abstract

This PhD thesis is focused on the study of the imported pottery in the Principado de Asturias during the late Middle Ages and the first Early Modern Period. The geographical framework is Asturias, a region located off the Cantabrian Coast, which lies along the northern edge of the Iberian Peninsula. The chronological framework extends from the 13th to the 18th century. This research analyses all the ceramic material that arrived at Asturias from Europe, Asia, America, as well as from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Local pottery that was influenced by these imports is also included in this analysis. The analysed sample consists of 3,990 pottery remains. From this total, 3,759 came from 50 separate archaeological excavations carried out in Principado de Asturias between the 1940s and present times. Also, 208 ceramic fragments were found by archaeological survey projects: 20 come from a private collection, and three are casual finds. The methodology used in this thesis has classified ceramics according to their different manufacturing workshops, productions, function groups, series, typologies and subtypes. This project created a database that includes 66 variables for each ceramic piece as well as a catalog that presents the most representative examples together. With all these data, this thesis was able to reconstruct the evolution of the trade of imported pottery in Asturias from the 13th to the 18th century. French ceramics dominate this trade between the 13th and 15th centuries while ceramics from Seville are most numerous in the 16th century. In the 17th century, the largest number of imports comes from Holland, Talavera de la Reina and Portugal. In the 18th century, the most abundant remains are from Castilian pottery. The resulting data revealed the influence of imported productions on local ceramics. As an example, new local productions appeared in the 16th century, which tried to imitate ceramics from Europe in their style of decoration. It was also possible to study the social context of some pottery objects offering some new conclusions concerning the relevance of imported productions to Asturian society in the period analysed. In addition, this thesis presents the results of a statistical analysis carried out on the standardization and the units of measurement used in Sevillian ‘botijuelas’. The thesis also includes an archaeometric study of local pottery in Asturias from the 16th and 17th century. This PhD research aims to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the pottery from the late Middle Ages and the first Early Modern Period in the Principado de Asturias.