A Guide to the Classification of Medieval Ceramic Forms

'A Guide to the Classification of Medieval Ceramic Forms' (Medieval Pottery Research Group Occasional Paper 1) was published in 1998 with grant funding from English Heritage. It provides a definition and nomenclature for ceramic forms made between the end of the Roman period and the beginning of intensive industrial pottery production in the 17th century. In 2019 grant funding from Historic England enabled MPRG to commission a project that has re-created the 'Guide' as an accessible on-line reference resource which is fully searchable, utilising interactive navigation and hyperlinks throughout the text. The 'Guide' presents a typology that aims to enable practitioners to identify vessel forms, clarify definitions in common usage and standardise the terminology used to describe and record vessel forms in pottery assessments, analyses and reports. The use of a standardised terminology facilitates consistent recording of medieval and early post-medieval pottery and thus the comparative study of pottery assemblages that may have been excavated and recorded by different organisations or individuals within the same local area, region or at national level. The 'Guide' performs a key role in enabling medieval and early post-medieval pottery to be recorded and analysed to the standard directed by 'A Standard for Pottery Studies in Archaeology' (Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group, Study Group for Roman Pottery and the Medieval Pottery Research Group 2016. https://romanpotterystudy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Standard_for_Pottery_Studies_in_Archaeology.pdf),that enables pottery assemblages to be understood to their full potential. It is hoped that this on-line reference resource will encourage the use of nationally accepted standards of recording pottery and enable them to be more actively promoted to all those working with pottery from archaeological excavations and anyone monitoring, managing or advising on such work. The 2015 'Historic England Strategy for Developing Research Resources' highlights the importance of reference resources, including typologies, for underpinning the research essential for the assessment of the significance of heritage assets, enabling the potential value of developer-led projects to be fully realised so that knowledge of the historic environment can be advanced for public benefit (Section 4, Section 6 paragraph 6.2). In addition to providing developer-led projects with an accessible reference resource MPRG wishes also to make the 'Guide' as widely available as possible so that students, community groups and anyone with an interest in pottery will be able to learn more about and understand medieval and early post-medieval pottery and its function and purpose in past societies and human life. MPRG is grateful to Historic England for providing funding for the digitising of the 'Guide' and its dissemination through ADS and to the project team for seeing the project through to completion: Maria Geals (digitisation), Lorraine Mepham (who took the lead in copy-editing and proof reading the text), Duncan Brown and Julie Edwards. The 1998 publication of the 'Guide', which is still in print, was the combined effort of many members of MPRG who are named and acknowledged in the publication and to whom the Group remains forever grateful.

《中世纪陶瓷器型分类指南》（《中世纪陶瓷研究小组临时论文集1》）于1998年由英国遗产委员会（English Heritage）资助出版。本指南为罗马时期末期至17世纪集约化工业陶瓷生产开端之间所制作的陶瓷器型提供了定义与命名体系。2019年，历史英格兰（Historic England）提供的资助使得中世纪陶瓷研究小组（Medieval Pottery Research Group, 简称MPRG）得以委托开展一项项目，将原《指南》重构为一款可访问的在线参考资源：该资源支持全文检索，并在文本中集成了交互式导航与超链接功能。本《指南》所提出的类型学体系，旨在帮助从业者识别陶瓷器型、厘清通用术语的定义，并规范在陶瓷评估、分析与报告中用于描述和记录器型的专业术语。采用标准化术语可实现中世纪及后中世纪早期陶瓷的统一记录，进而支持对同一地域、区域乃至国家层面由不同机构或个人发掘并记录的陶瓷组合开展比较研究。本《指南》在推动中世纪及后中世纪早期陶瓷按照《考古学陶瓷研究标准》（Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group、Study Group for Roman Pottery与中世纪陶瓷研究小组，2016年；https://romanpotterystudy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Standard_for_Pottery_Studies_in_Archaeology.pdf）所制定的规范开展记录与分析方面发挥着关键作用，该标准可充分挖掘陶瓷组合的研究价值。本在线参考资源旨在推动全国统一的陶瓷记录标准的应用，并助力将该标准更广泛地推广至所有参与考古发掘陶瓷工作、以及监督、管理或为此类工作提供咨询的相关人员。《2015年历史英格兰研究资源发展战略》（Historic England Strategy for Developing Research Resources）强调了参考资源（包括类型学体系）对支撑遗产资产价值评估所需研究的重要性，该研究可充分实现开发商主导项目的潜在价值，进而为公共利益推进历史环境相关知识的发展（第4章节、第6章节第6.2段）。除为开发商主导的项目提供可访问的参考资源外，中世纪陶瓷研究小组（MPRG）还希望尽可能广泛地推广本《指南》，使学生、社区团体以及所有对陶瓷感兴趣的人士能够进一步了解并认识中世纪及后中世纪早期陶瓷，以及其在过往社会与人类生活中的功能与意义。中世纪陶瓷研究小组（MPRG）感谢历史英格兰（Historic England）为《指南》的数字化及通过ADS进行传播提供资助，同时感谢项目团队顺利完成本项目：玛丽亚·吉尔兹（Maria Geals，负责数字化工作）、洛林·梅普汉姆（Lorraine Mepham，牵头负责文本的编辑与校对）、邓肯·布朗（Duncan Brown）与朱莉·爱德华兹（Julie Edwards）。1998年出版的《指南》至今仍在发行，其问世凝聚了中世纪陶瓷研究小组众多成员的心血，这些成员均在出版物中被列明致谢，本小组始终对他们心怀感激。