Maryland Archeology Month

-April 2009-

Sponsored by:

St. Mary's City:
375 years old, thousands of years young

Explore!

Archeology Gallery

Rhenish blue and gray stoneware mug

Throughout the 17th century, some of the finest made pottery in Europe came from the area near the Rhine River valley. This example was made in the Westerwald region in the third quarter of the 17th century.

These ceramics were made in a number of localities. Germany in the modern sense did not exist in the 17th century. The area was instead made up of numerous quasi-independent states and kingdoms which were parts of what had been the Holy Roman Empire.

These ceramics were stoneware, meaning they were fired to a temperature which made the clay impervious to water. They were embellished with cobalt painting which created the blue color, and glazed with salt.