Cooking vessels of the early medieval village of Miranduolo, Tuscany

Excavations at Miranduolo, Tuscany revealed a substantial Medieval settlement and castle, with a rich architectural and ceramic sequence from the 7th-13th century. The ceramic record is dominated by coarseware, mainly cooking pots, which offer a reliable indicator of date at the site, but also a window on everyday life, of choices regarding food preparation equipment. Petrographic analysis has been employed in order to understand if these coarsewares were produced by the village inhabitants for their own us in a household context, or whether they are the product of one or more external centres, with subsequent distribution of their products. Changes in these patterns over the six centuries of occupation are of interest, as the site developed from a small village to a local centre of power. The study demonstrates that during the early middle ages Miranduolo was a consumer of cooking pottery, apparently not a producer. Several different fabrics were identified, some of which correlate to geology and analysed material produced at other centres in Tuscany. Specific raw material choices, such a calcite temper, are also of interest. One of the main sources for the Miranduolo cooking vessels is a nucleated workshop active since the late Roman period.