Highhays, Kilkenny

A Medieval Pottery Production Centre in South-East Ireland

Emma Devine, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781789258547
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This richly illustrated book presents the first comprehensive study of the making and marketing of pottery in medieval Ireland. Focusing on a well-preserved 14th-century pottery production center which was excavated in 2006 at Highhays, outside the walls of the renowned Anglo-Norman town of Kilkenny in south-east Ireland, the authors describe its kiln, workshops and working areas, as well as its 'Highhays Ware' products: jugs, jars, cooking-pots, money-boxes and ridge tiles. Foremost amongst the outputs from the kiln site were high-quality, wheel-thrown, green-glazed jugs that were closely modeled on French Saintonge and Bristol Redcliffe archetypes and the volume describes the distinctive processes, kiln-firing technology and raw materials that were employed to produce these, and the other wares, represented on the site. The book also presents the results of an innovative plasma spectrometry and petrological analysis of Highhays Ware, which facilitated identification of the source for the raw potting clays areas – located at a considerable distance from Highhays in north county Kilkenny – used in its production, in addition to allowing for a study of the uncharacteristically broad distribution of the ware throughout the south-east of Ireland. The authors also place the production of pottery at Highhays in its broader context by presenting an overall review of the archaeological and historical evidence for pottery making and consumption in medieval Ireland, as well as by exploring the cultural background and social status of potters in the Anglo-Norman colony. Supporting the analysis and interpretation of the Highhays site and its assemblage are specialist and scientific contributions on the pottery, tiles, ceramic production material, metal finds, coins and archaeobotanical and animal bone remains from the site, archaeomagnetic and radiocarbon dating and plasma spectrometry and petrological analysis.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Authors and contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Note on conventions
• Archaeological excavation archive
• Foreword by Minister for Heritage Malcolm Noonan
• Preface
• Summary
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Pottery Production Centre Excavations (Area 1, Period 1)
• 3. Bake-Yard Excavations (Area 2, Period 1), Abandonment and Subsequent Land-Use (Areas 1 and 2, Periods 2 and 3)
• 4. The Products of the Highhays Pottery
• 5. Highhays Ware, a Provenance and Distribution Study
• 6. Non-Ceramic Finds
• 7. Archaeobotanical and Charcoal Analysis
• 8. Highhays and Pottery Production in Medieval Ireland
• Bibliography
• Appendix 1: Archaeomagnetic dating of the pottery kiln at Highhays, Kilkenny, by Vassil Karloukovski and Mark W. Hounslow
• Appendix 2: Radiocarbon dates
• Appendix 3: Post-medieval pottery, by Clare McCutcheon
• Appendix 4: Post-medieval clay building material, by Joanna Wren
• Appendix 5: Animal bone, by Karin Ilseth
• Appendix 6: Disarticulated human remains, by Karin Ilseth