Ceramics from the Old Kinchega Homestead

It is appropriate to dedicate to Judy Birmingham a paper on ceramics, for her own knowledge of this field has been influential in the practice of Australian historical archaeology. Many will remember her concern with the Irrawang and Lithgow Potteries. But her interests were not confined to Australia and she was in the 1970s innovative, as always, in studying traditional ceramic manufacture. Her ‘Traditional potters of the Kathmandu valley: an ethnoarchaeological study’ (1972) is a valuable work, reflecting the time’s concern with ‘mental templates’, but still rich in useful insights. At that time several of the postgraduate students at the University of Sydney were researching ceramics: Christine Eslick in Anatolia, David Frankel in Cyprus, and Aedeen Cremin in Western Europe. Judy’s expertise and her willingness to discuss ceramic technology was stimulating and helpful. Pim Allison was a student of Judy’s at both undergraduate and doctoral levels. She learnt much about critical thinking and approaches to artefacts from Judy’s teaching in Near Eastern Archaeology. And Judy’s supervision of her doctoral thesis helped her stay focused during difficult times. Dedicating this article to Judy expresses some of our gratitude. From Kathmandu to Kinchega is a long way, but no further than Pim’s work on the Roman frontier or Aedeen’s at imperial Angkor. The common links are the questions about ceramics: who made them, who acquired them, who used them, who discarded them? At Kinchega, the first question is easily answered, since most of the ceramics are of standard British manufacture; the other three however require more reflection and we cannot claim to provide a full answer here, but only some clues for future reference. For Judy, therefore, a work in progress...