II THE MATERIAL OF MEDIEVAL AND NEW AGES: SOCIAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES ARCHAEOLOGIA BALTICA 25 I n t r o d u c t i o n Rhenish stoneware production has a history of more than 700 years. It was one of the most successful European craft industries in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (Gaimster 2006). Stoneware artefacts are found all over the continent, as well as in North America, Africa, China and Australia (Gaimster 1997). Major productions sites were in present-day Lower Rhineland (Siegburg, Raeren, Cologne, Frechen, Westerwald), and in Saxony (Waldenburg, Annaberg, Freiberg). Numerous excavations during the 20th century allowed us to locate stoneware wasters, which resulted in the successive typochronology of these items (Gaimster 2006). However, the initial research on stoneware conducted by 19th-century antiquarians was mainly focused on stoneware as valuable items on the antique market. Only in the last few decades did archaeologists start to concentrate on the distribution, trading and social aspects of stoneware.