fcambridgeshirearchaeology Late Saxon to Post-medieval Manorial ...

Appendix 4: The Pottery
by Jane Young
1 Introduction
In total, one hundred and seventy-nine sherds of pottery representing a
maximum of one hundred and twenty-eight vessels were submitted for
examination. The pottery recovered ranges in date from the Late
Saxon to early modern periods. The assemblage was quantified by
three measures: number of sherds, weight and vessel count within
each context. Fabric identification of some of the pottery was
undertaken by x20 binocular microscope. The ceramic data was
entered on an Access database using fabric codenames agreed locally
and nationally (Table 8).
2 Condition
The pottery is mostly in a slightly abraded to abraded condition with
sherd size mainly falling into the small size range (below 20 grams). In
total twenty-four vessels are represented by more than one sherd and
there were no cross-context joins. One vessel appears to have cracked
during firing and may have been sold as a second. Forty vessels have
external soot residues showing that they have been used over an open
fire, several of these appear to have broken during use as the soot is
found to continue over the broken edges. Some vessels also have
internal soot or carbonised deposits suggesting that the contents of the
vessel have burnt. Several vessels have external residues suggesting
that they have been in a waterlain environment.
3 Overall Chronology and Source
A range of forty different, identifiable post-Roman pottery ware types
were identified, the type and general date range for these fabrics are
shown in Table 6. The post-Roman pottery ranges in date from the
Late Saxon to early modern periods. A limited range of vessel types
was recovered including examples of bowls, jugs and pitchers, jars,
drinking vessels, a bottle and a plate.
Codename Full name Earliest Latest Sherds Vessels
date date
BERTH Brown glazed earthenware 1550 1800 1 1
BL Black-glazed wares 1550 1750 3 3
BOSTLT Boston Glazed ware - Lincoln type 1230 1330 3 3
BOU Bourne D ware 1350 1650 1 1
BOUA Bourne-type Fabrics A, B and C 1150 1400 8 7
CIST Cistercian-type ware 1480 1650 5 5
CREA Creamware 1770 1830 1 1
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ccc AFU Report No. 895