Since the publication in 1994 of Medieval Ceramic Studies in England: a review for EH by Maureen Mellor there have been a number of significant initiatives in the field of medieval pottery studies. The long outstanding Guide to the classification of medieval ceramic forms has finally been completed and publication is due in September 1997. This will provide for the first time access to a common nomenclature and will make a significant contribution to the goal of a standardised approach in pottery reports. The Medieval Pottery National Bibliography compiled at the University of Liverpool and is now in its third and final stage and will be available in digital format in 1998. A project to produce a corpus of medieval production centres began in 1997 at King Alfred's University College, Winchester. This will be completed over the next three years and will use historical, documentary, and archaeological sources to provide the first comprehensive list of known production centres. Many of these are only currently known from brief notes in a wide variety of publications and a significant number are still unpublished. The project will make extensive use of both the National bibliography and the Classification of medieval ceramic forms and its methodology is derived from the MPP. Completion of these three initiatives formed part of the principle recommendations of Mellor's survey.
A number of specific pottery studies have also been completed. A twelfth-century pottery kiln at Pound Lane, Canterbury by John Cotter was published in 1997 and examines a work shop of a probable continental potter in the mid-twelfth century. Another detailed study on the Middle Saxon pottery made in Ipswich by Paul Blinkhorn, has been completed and will be published in 1997. This is a comprehensive study of the earliest post-Roman wheel made pottery to be widely traded, and includes the analysis of the lipids derived from cooking found in the vessel walls by Dr Richard Evershed, and an extensive thin section programme by Dr David Williams.
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