 My name is Frau Witte. I'm working as an archaeologist at the Museum of Southern Dublin in Denmark and I'm afraid you will find my presentation rather exotic, like I think yours are rather exotic. So we moved to the area of Scandinavia or Northern Europe. I tried to cover a bigger area and as you already have seen and as you know during many periods of human history Camel people's art was dominated by decorated pottery. From the invention of stone age, like from the invention of burning clay into the more consistent material of ceramic, people decorated vessels with different motifs and gave it special shapes. Nines and patterns on stone age vessels for example must be earned to protect as decoration and therefore as a kind to please the eye. Later in the Viking Age we have such a thing in Scandinavia and in the Middle Ages in Northern Europe ceramics became a secondary thing only to meant to be useful that you see here, not decorated at all. But then around 1500 there's a huge shift in how ceramics was produced, decorated and used in our area. Beginning with the glazing of ceramics and the invention of the potter's wheel in the late medieval ages, earthenware cans and pots slowly got a new look. Still most of the products were black-fired or restricted possibilities cannot really paint on black, black-fired ceramics. Compared to the preceding period the dramatic changes in the ceramic tradition in Northern Europe became apparent from the beginning of the 16th century. Potters introduced new vessel forms and started decorating the wares in completely different ways. After centuries of black and red-fired wares only rarely with plastic decorations, potters started producing red-fired objects decorated with different places and painting, slip-glazing, change in food and eating habits led to a more open shape of plates which allowed for decoration on the inside and for a kind of personal choice of the decoration. And this way the earthenware acquired a completely different appearance and the ornamentation took on the hythero unknown function of expressing certain signals and values. These changes took place earlier in Southern Europe and the influence of porcelain and finance is clearly seen in Northern Europe ceramics but with the delay. The changes in the ceramic tradition took place at the same time as the Reformation could focus on the relationship between the individual and Christianity. And the Renaissance challenged the medieval perception of art. The new forms of vessels and its ornaments which characterized the locally produced earthenware through most of the 16th and into the 17th century reflect the need of the owners to distinguish themselves visually from their neighbors for example. These changes in the ceramic forms and especially the ornamentation reflect a new development towards youth and decorative elements as symbols. In the Middle Ages, Northern Europe's society's ways of visually expressing personal beliefs and statements were limited. One such way was art. Only few people were able to present their status and to decorate through the choice of books, tapestries and paintings whereas all levels of society used ornamented pottery whose different motives and forms developed into everyday art which were for example displayed hanging on the wall. Provident sources like inventories of castles and estates we know that paintings and tapestries were only used for decoration. Other things like books, silver candlelight holders, Italian glassware and so on imported were both useful and decorated at the same time not to mention the imported ceramics like fire and suppository. It was all important in the development of a modern cosmopolitan... yeah you know what I would say lifestyle. However what about the inhabitants of the cities or even the rural settlements who could not afford or did not have access to the exotic and expensive things? What about yeah people at the farms outside the cities? We can be quite sure that the amount of our pieces like you see in the picture were not existing or at least limited there. Our archaeological excavations show that also expensive non-ceramic things were not existing and the environments finds reveal though that there are imported ceramics a stoneware faience a later porcelain and the cultural layers in the cities at least. In the cultural layers and waste pits in the rural settlements this type of artifact is much rarer. But in every social level you can find locally produced earthenware for example with slip painted decorations from about the second half of the 16th century onwards. Even if it's not mentioned in the inventories of the written sources the archaeological sources that virtually decorated ceramics were represented both in high stages social levels and in the rural settlements. So pottery has over a very long period brought art into all homes from the rural settlements to the castles. And the potter's workshops obviously tried in the everyday work with the earthenware forms and decorations to match the customers need for not only earthenware but also for attitude bearing symbols like religious motifs. The interaction between the potter, the producer and the client the customer after 1500 for a while became under the influence of the big religious and political questions of that time in northern Europe. So the tile ovens actually start this development and can be used as an indicator for these changes. So tiles developed from only being functional like ones rough to becoming a piece of art from being being undecorated to being glazed and then decorated with motifs and different colors. The shift of the forms supports the decoration possibilities. At a point it became possible to use the tiles for showing images for example of Renaissance lords or scenes from the Bible. Here above the decorative element it also carries a symbolic element and it functions as a message. People knew these images over a wide geographical area and understood the owner's attitude. And the same observation can be made in the ceramics used for cooking and much more evidently for serving. The glass helps to keep liquids of course and keeps food from burning but outside decoration is definitely not tied to the function. Besides geometric motifs floral and figural motifs became popular and the inspiration came of course from southern Europe with moving craftsmen and trade. And as these motifs were quite the same all over northern Europe at that time they can be interpreted as well known symbols. Some in connection with the Bible like the pigeon, the fishes, the pomegranate, etc. But all over flowers and animals in the 17th century were common symbols of protection and defense. And later in the 18th century also written statements appeared like these. The intention of using writing on vessels is explained with certain photos wished to separate themselves from other porters in a time where the written word about a higher intellectual status than the painting you know we have for a formation in northern Europe. And in archaeological context this becomes evident excavations of porter workshops from this period shows evidence of specialization among the porters in different subjects. For example some were specialized in making models for oven tiles or others and slip painted earthenware. So driven by competition with others they hereby could lift themselves from the status of a craftsman to an artist. This kind of material culture has a symbolic value and can be used actively in social and economic relations. Can be a way of expressing identity for a certain group or it can be used to be ignored because it shows the identity of group you don't want to be part of. In this case the art so the decorated ceramics was not unique like more expensive and imported things and parcel households can be defined as folk art. But it was a kind of art that visitors knew and which placed the owner in a social cultural group with a result that the owner could show that he could afford it and he could show that he was aware of the trends and the fashion. The end of the middle ages and the beginning of the post-media period as I said was characterized by big religious, political and social changes and these changes often demanded that each person should take a stand in the community as an individual. This also led to individualized ceramics maybe like this where you can choose which kind of writing you want to have on your plate while eating or while displaying it in your home. So we can imagine that the owner's position was communicated to the community through this material culture and if you look at her there's a writing here and it says this is a wording so it must be kind of statement right. I don't know you have you have to imagine what what the statement should be. And these kind of things are almost impossible to see in archaeological find situation but we see that the highest archaeological, the highest social strata also have the biggest variety of ceramics. Stoneware takes in the written sources the part of the most expensive types of ceramic until it became mass production still as an import but in paintings of live scenes like these open vessels like plates show that it was not necessarily the most expensive thing but the most decorative things are pieces in a household which were shown. One could argue that these paintings show storage situations for plates and of course they do. Though the plates are not stable onto each other they are shown a singular area with a decorated side turned towards the viewer hanging a plate on the wall would be easier if it turned the other way around you know and try that at home. And quite sure in some of these paintings which shows households with interior there must be storage situations where plates are placed on the shelf at the wall but even if it's not possible to decide whether it is wood or metal or earthenware or porcelain we see in these paintings we also can see that often these plates are arranged in a singular way and not on top of each other. So and in other situations here for example the plates are definitely shown with the decorations towards the viewer and arranged as art on the wall like this. Sometimes together with other art pieces like paintings so and in households without porcelain we must assume that the decorated earthenware took the place of the porcelain plates on the wall. So in this way ceramic is a media for eating culture and intake of food which in the past had a central position in the social area and in that way this everyday life object turns to a piece of art which is on display in the houses to show the social and cultural identity of the owner. And my last slide is you all know this picture so today we still like the Scandinavian people at least they still like to put decorative things on display you can buy this it's in the actual IKEA book you can you can buy it for 50 euros and you see it in the houses all around with some nice plates or other things on it so it also involves ceramic still that we like to show and maybe you have things standing in your window or I don't know but also statements are not out of fashion yeah that's an example more how to display decorative plates but also statements on ceramics are not out of fashion in our time so thank you