The materials of the medieval age

Materials from the medieval age [room 20]
Among the materials exhibited in the Museum there are some medieval ceramics, mostly fragmentary, that came from the workshops that operated in Ugento, in the Borgo area along the via Salentina, on the eastern slopes of the old town. The first findings date back to 1974, when, during work on the water pipe system in via Madonna della Luce (Priore), a large deposit of pottery was found together with clay bars used in the kilns as spacers between the vases. Although the structures of the kilns were not identified, the recovery brought to light a considerable number of ceramic fragments, presumably coming from the landfill of a single workshop. After this discovery, further evidence confirmed the hypothesis of the presence of active artisanal ceramic production; in 1986, during excavations for public utility infrastructures in via Garibaldi, two kilns for the production of pottery were identified, while subsequently other production structures were brought to light in via Barco, via SS. Doctors and the S.P. Ugento-Casarano. Most of the finds are concentrated in the northern part of the town, along via Salentina, where there were already kilns in the Hellenistic period, suggesting that this area was probably used for production ancient times; given its peripheral position compared to the medieval town of Ugento, this area was also used for the disposal of waste products. The artefacts produced in the Ugento kilns are part of the ceramic production context of the lower Salento in a chronological period between the Angevin age and the 15th century, with some ceramic typologies showing persistence in the first decades of the 16th century. The analysis of the artefacts reveals a remarkable specialization of the Ugentine potters in the production of glazed and polychrome decorated ceramics, protograffiti ceramics, and double dipped ware, artefacts widely used in Puglia between the 13th and 15th centuries. The main artefacts produced in Ugento were tableware, i.e. ceramics intended for the consumption of food and drink, covered and waterproofed with lead solution glass. In the drain discovered in 1974, double-fired vases were found, mainly open in shape: especially bowls and basins, but also jugs and mouthpieces which, after decoration (painted or graffiti), were covered with a transparent and brilliant vitreous solution. The colour combinations were various, with decorations in red or brown, or in red and brown or brown and green, and, finally, with a combination of brown, red, and green (the so-called RMR, or "red, manganese, ramin"), while the graffito decoration often showed the chromatic association of red and green (protograffita). 
The most attested and characteristic decorative motif of the Ugento ateliers consists of stylised leaves placed in the centre of the open forms. In addition to this decoration, birds and, more rarely, human figures were also created, faces rendered in profile. The high level of specialization of these workshops is illustrated by a partially intact jug, found in 2005 along the S.P. Ugento-Casarano, glazed and richly decorated in red and brown depicting a bird, perhaps an eagle, with spread wings (fig. 1). Furthermore, in Ugento, small bowls with shallow basins were produced, painted red or brown, some of them with bore shields decorated with crosses painted in red (fig. 2); in this regard, it should be highlighted that the use of decorating pottery with heraldic motifs appears in Salento in the 14th century, for purely political and propagandistic purposes, as an ideological symbol of the legitimacy of feudal power towards the central power.
The abundance of badly baked, twisted, melted, and glazed waste, found in the drain in via Madonna della Luce, suggests also the production of common painted ceramics, such as amphorae for domestic use and jugs, and to a lesser extent, of fired ceramics, such as pots and small jars. Common ceramics, i.e. without glazing, were mostly used to contain and preserve foodstuffs, both liquid such as water, wine, and oil, and dry such as cereals and legumes. The most common shapes were medium and small amphorae and, more rarely, jars. The first ones, in particular, had two main shapes, one with a cylindrical body and concave bottom, the other with a pot-bellied body and flat bottom; both types were decorated with spiral motifs or with vertical knots and loops on the shoulder and belly, while the handles were crossed vertically by two or more vertical bands that connected to the decoration on the body.
Although less common, Ugento also produced kitchen and fire pottery, made with refractory clays and surfaces without a glazes. In the drain of via Madonna della Luce there are mainly pots, or piñatas, with ribbon-like handles placed side by side, and small jars with wide mouths, shapes used for cooking food and keeping liquids food warm.