Hello, and welcome to our final post here at the ANTH361 Medieval Pottery blog! We have a few parting words and final thoughts to share with you before we wrap up for the semester.
Firstly, our final poster titled, “Shaping the Past: Experiential Archaeology and Medieval Pottery” has been finished and printed! We are incredibly proud of the finished product – as well as grateful for Bridget’s excellent Canva skills and advice! – and are very happy with how it turned out. Attached below is a picture of our poster, and we will link a PDF version at the very bottom of this post.
Our finished poster!
Seeing our poster as well as our finished pottery pieces (as well as the shards of those which did not survive the firing) was such a rewarding experience! Being able to look at a tangible display that symbolized and presented our weeks of hard work was incredibly cool. Getting to elaborate and explain our process to curious passers-by was also satisfying, and made us proud of our work.
Our poster as well as our fired clay bowls and shards as displayed in the Cornett building.
Ultimately, our adventure into Medieval pottery was not only fun and enriching, but also highly thought-provoking and insightful. It’s really powerful how experiential and experimental archaeology can open a window into the past in a way that other forms of scholarship and academic research cannot! It’s so important that modern academia is now beginning to (in some circles and capacities, at least) become more open to alternate ways of studying the past, because if our journey taught us anything, it’s that experience is just as important as other forms of learning.
Sending out sincere thanks to everyone who has followed us along on this journey! Who knows, maybe some Medieval pottery pursuits are in your future as well!
Thanks for reading,
Alex, Bridget, and Lily