Archaeologists In France Uncovered The Ruins Of A 400-Year-Old Pottery Workshop That Still Had Pieces Of Cookware In Its Kilns
In the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer, France, archaeologists conducted excavations and ended up stumbling upon the ruins of a 400-year-old pottery workshop with pieces of nearly intact cookware still in its two kilns. The workshop was buried six feet underground at the site.
Hundreds of years ago, the town’s Thorin district was a major trading zone for cloth and pottery. It is located about 150 miles north of Paris.
Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have been digging in the area with the goal of finding important historical artifacts.
Obviously, they have been successful in their ventures!
The main furnace was made out of bricks and shaped like an almond. There were pieces of pottery and waste inside it.
The shards revealed that cookware such as frying pans, teles, and tripods were created, as well as tableware like pitchers and pots. Designs were also visible on the pottery pieces from the kiln.
The second furnace was older and smaller than the first one. The bricks did not show any signs of heat damage, which likely meant that it was never used.
It must have functioned as storage for pottery waste. Additionally, traces of walls and buildings surrounding the workshop were unearthed.
Since the 10th century, Montreuil-sur-Mer has been inhabited, but the city really started thriving in the 13th century when it became a hub for trading cloth.
Stockbym – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Thorin was the largest trading district in the city. It became the center of pottery production in the area.
The artifacts discovered there usually date back to the 13th century, but researchers have found evidence that shows the pottery workshop was in use during the 12th century.
Archaeologists gathered samples of natural red sand from the site. They also analyzed ceramic furniture that was collected from several pits to the east of the site.
The materials revealed that the workshop dates back to the 12th century. Most of the pottery is from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The workshop closed sometime around the 17th century, and other structures were built on top of it, which buried the kilns deeper beneath the ground.
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