De Baltic and North Atlantic Pottery Research Group (BNPG) organiseert van 23 t/m 25 april 2026 haar zesde bijeenkomst in Enkhuizen, in de historische Drommedaris. Dit congres, samen met de Nederlandse-Vlaamse conferentiereeks Assembled Articles, richt zich op middeleeuws en vroegmodern aardewerk en verwante thema’s. Het programma bevat presentaties, posterbijdragen, een hands-on workshop en een excursie. Bekijk hieronder de officiële uitnodiging.
BNPG
The Baltic and North Atlantic Pottery Research Group (BNPG) is a group of archaeologists, historians, art historians and others with a passion for medieval and post-medieval pottery produced and traded within Northern Europe. It was established in 2016, bringing together specialists from different regions to meet and exchange knowledge. Thus far, BNPG has had five successful meetings. The last one in Bonn (2024) was attended by more than 70 participants.
Enkhuizen 23-25 April 2026
In Bonn, we decided that the sixth meeting of BNPG will be in Enkhuizen on 23-25 April 2026. This is a picturesque city with many buildings dating back to the Dutch Golden Age. It has a significant trail of early modern Werra pottery production. The venue of our meeting is the Barbican of Enkhuizen called ‘De Drommedaris’ (the Dromedary), a well-kept defence tower and former town gate.
Joint event
This time, the BNPG meeting will be slightly different from the previous ones. To stimulate networking, the organisers of the conference have agreed to hold a joint event with our Dutch-Flemish counterpart, the Assembled Articles conference series. Assembled Articles is a research group of Dutch and Flemish specialists in medieval and post-medieval ceramics. The language of the conference is English only.
Topics
This time, we have also set a broadly defined topic for our meeting. The organisers are especially looking for presentations that are dedicated to more or less common pottery from the medieval and later periods: technical ceramics (such as inventory of the laboratories), ceramics as weapons, religious and cult items made of clay, ceramic culinary tools, etc. However, we understand that not every possible participant has such evidence; thus, papers focusing on other subjects are also welcome. We will also encourage submitting poster presentations, but due to the extremely tight timetable, we can’t provide a floor for every topic.
Programme
Next to the presentations, we will also have a hands-on class on Enkhuizen, Dutch and imported late medieval – early modern pottery, provided by Wytze Stellingwerf, ceramic specialist of the province of North-Holland. Enkhuizen is a seaborne town of the former East India Company (VOC), well known for its Chinese porcelain, international tinglaze wares and exotic materials. In addition, there will also be an excursion on Saturday, 25.04.2026. The destinations are to be decided, but promise to be rather unique. We would also like to inform you beforehand that due to the special location, our organising costs will be, for this time, higher than previously. Thanks to the generous support of the local institutions, we have been able to reduce it by a certain amount, but the conference fee will still be higher than usual. The conference fee will be € 100 for professionals and € 75 for students. This will cover the coffee and lunch breaks, and trivialities. It will not include the conference dinner on 23.04.2026. We hope for your understanding.
Registration and information
We encourage everybody interested in the topic to send their abstract of no more than 250 words by 01.11.2025 to bnpg@bnpg.eu and for registration of participation by 15.01.2026 to archeologie@hoorn.nl. For additional information, please contact m.bartels@hoorn.nl.