Tracing changing beverage consumption trends in the Low Countries through the analysis of stoneware drinking vessels, 1300-1600 CE

Abstract

It has been assumed that during the late fourteenth and into the fifteenth century, beer replaced wine as the preferred beverage in the areas around the Low Countries and Germany. Authors like Raymond van Uytven, Susan Rose, Max Nelson and Richard Yntema have all demonstrated how this change is reflected in the historical records. The focus of this article is to study how this change from wine to beer consumption may be reflected in the material record. To study this, research has been conducted on the most common material from the fourteenth to seventeenth century: stoneware. A use-function approach was used to gather information about characteristics of drinking vessels, with further information gathered from historical illustrations. Once gathered, these characteristics work as guidelines to apply the specific use-function of either wine or beer consumption to individual vessels. This catalogue of characteristics can then be applied to datasets of stonewares. These characteristics were applied to a dataset of stoneware assemblages from Nijmegen, Dordrecht and Deventer reported in Cities in Sherds (Bartels 1997). These assemblages were classified based upon use. The results from this data indicate an increase in wine vessels after the fourteenth century, contrary to what the historical record has indicated. Future studies in the field could focus on developing more accurate methods to identify vessels. This research could potentially be used as a starting point for future enquiries into the nuances of beverage preferences in the late medieval period.