Images, ceramic floors and Warden Abbey
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Evelyn Baker
- Source
- World Archaeology. 18:363-381
- Subject
- Archeology
History
Post-excavation analysis
media_common.quotation_subject
Advanced degree
Art history
Excavation
Raising (metalworking)
Archaeology
Code (semiotics)
Craft
Beauty
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
media_common
- Language
- ISSN
- 1470-1375
0043-8243
Excavations in 1974 at Warden Abbey in Bedfordshire, a major Cistercian house in the south of England, uncovered paving of exceptional beauty and interest. Post excavation analysis has produced new and detailed information about medieval tilers’ techniques. Remnants of complex and highly decorated ceramic pictures alter previous conceptions of tiling as a humble craft, raising it to an art form. A craftsman's code incised on the normally hidden faces of the tiles informs us that their creators were not merely ingenious but literate and numerate to an advanced degree.