Abstract:
The mediaeval pottery region of the southern Palatine, which hitherto has only been elucidated by the studies of the settlement Speyer ›Im Vogelgesang‹, can now through a deliberate documentation of material from sites of the Early
and High Middle Ages not only be presented comprehensively, but at the same time placed within a comparative and supraregional perspective. Consequently, the possibility arises for working out not only the relationships of the regional wares to one another, but also the connections with other pottery regions.
The results of the investigations show that the southern Palatine is, beside the major wares of southwestern Germany, dominated especially by a large number of variations of particularly yellow wheel-turned wares. Mainly as a result of the considerable variation of sub-classes of yellow wheel-turned pottery not only within castles and settlement sites, an affiliation of the southern Palatine pottery region to its neighbours is rendered much more difficult. Further light on the issue would be offered not only by future excavations of early and high mediaeval settlement sites; particularly the
evidence of pottery-making in the southern Palatine would be able to answer questions about pottery manufacture.
Translation: C. Bridger