Iberian ceramics in southern Scandinavia c. 1100-1600

The Iberian Peninsula was an important source for a number of luxury goods, such as textiles, oil, rice, wine, spices, sugar, almonds, figs and raisins, traded to northern Europe in the late middle ages. For Scandinavia the written information about this trade is sparse and mostly derives from German Hanseatic sources. Important information has also come in recent years from archaeobotanical studies. Both written accounts and botanical finds, however, can be problematic as sources for knowledge on the spatial and social distribution because of their somewhat arbitrary preservation. Another important source for knowledge on trade has since the beginning of medieval archaeology been the study of distributions of pottery, based on its widespread use and high preservation in archaeological contexts, although not unproblematic either. Since the work of Hurst in the 1960’s studies of medieval Iberian ceramics in northern Europe have mainly covered the British Isles, the Low Countries and to some extend Norway, while the rest of Scandinavia and the Baltic sea area are much less explored. In this paper finds of Iberian ceramics and their distribution in mainly medieval Denmark will be presented and discussed, based on a pioneering work published in 2015. The Iberian ceramics reaching southern Scandinavia – most of it probably through the Hanseatic network - comprises either luxury tableware imported in its own right, or the much more easily overlooked transport vessels, which reached the area as containers for foodstuffs, thus holding information on the distribution of these goods, as a supplement to the written and archaeobotanical evidence. A survey of Iberian ceramics in southern Scandinavia also serves as comparative material for studies in other parts of the Baltic region.