ULAS
University of Leicester Archaeological Services

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Ceramic analysis

Why do we collect and study pottery? Pottery is often the most abundant type of artefact within an archaeological assemblage because it was easily broken, does not decay and could not be recycled.  During most time periods pottery was reasonably cheap to replace and almost everyone used it.  In this respect, it is very useful for archaeologists because it presents us with a significant sample of material that provides information about how people from all levels of society lived in the past.

How do we analyse pottery? Pottery has three attributes which vary both geographically and across time, that we can use to classify it:

•Form (vessel shape)

•Fabric (the clay from which it is made)

•Decoration (for example glaze, slip, impressed patterns)

Using this method of classification helps us to identify different types of pottery. Pottery recovered from an excavation is almost always broken with whole pots rarely discovered.  This is because most of the time we are dealing with rubbish left behind by people at some point in time.

In order to create a dataset that we can use to look for patterns based on the classified pot types, the broken sherds (pieces of pot) need to be quantified.  The three methods commonly used to achieve this are:

•Sherd count (recording the number of pieces identified as the same)

•Weight of sherds (recording the total weight of pieces identified as the same)

•Estimated Vessel Equivalents (measuring the percentage of surviving pot rim from individual vessels). At least two methods are always used together to try and make the quantification as accurate as possible.

What sort of information can we obtain? Once we have created a dataset, analysis of a pottery assemblage can give an insight into three main areas:

Dating and Chronology:  the shape of vessels often change through time and we can create a chronological order by developing a type series which illustrates the pattern of change.  If the pottery from a particular feature can be dated, it can provide an indication of when people where using the site. 

Trade and Exchange: a fabric series provides examples of pots made in different places and by comparing fabrics we can work out where a vessel has come from.  This gives us information about trade both in terms of where pots are being made but also what products they may have contained. 

Social Status and Function: some types of pot were used for particular things, for example cooking, storage, eating and drinking.  Comparing the amounts of different functional types can give an insight into how a site or part of a site was being used.  Some imported pottery was more expensive to buy than local wares, so working out the quantities of more expensive items can indicate relative wealth.  It is also important to combine information gained from pottery with other things such as animal bone and environmental evidence, to look at issues such as cuisine and trading of goods.

Roman Pottery

Why do we find so much Roman pottery?: Roman pottery was mass-produced on a semi-industrial/workshop scale, making it a cheaper alternative to metal and glass vessels. In Britain, the Roman period (AD43-c.AD410) was the first time pottery was readily available to almost everyone. As a result, when pots were broken they were easily replaced and the broken pieces were discarded with other refuse. Pottery does not decay in the same way as organic remains such as bone or wood, so it is often well preserved.

Where does it come from?: During the Roman period pottery was imported into Britain from other parts of the Roman Empire, from areas such as Spain, Gaul (modern France), Germany, Italy and North Africa. Pottery industries were soon operating in Britain as well, some probably set up by migrant potters from the Continent. In Leicester, pots from Mancetter-Hartshill in Warwickshire and the Nene Valley area in Cambridgeshire are very common, alongside more locally made wares and imports.

Types of Roman Pottery: The Romans also introduced a wide variety of vessel types used for storage and transportation, and preparing and serving new sorts of food and drink. Amphorae were large storage vessels used for transporting goods throughout the Empire, usually by sea. The most common imports to Britain were olive oil, wine and fish sauce from Spain, Gaul and Italy. Amphorae were very heavy with large handles and spikes on the base to help with lifting.

Mortaria were bowl-shaped, often with spouts and large rims suggesting they were used as mixing bowls. They also had grits lining the inside to create a rough inner surface which was good for helping to grind spices or mix up ingredients. The grits could be made from small pieces of rock such as flint or quartz or crushed up bits of pottery. At first mortaria were imported, but potters in Britain soon started to copy the design.

A range of fine table wares were available for serving food and drink. Liquids could be poured from flagons or jugs, which were narrow mouthed vessels often made in a white fabric. Samian Ware is the term used to describe red-slipped bowls, dishes and cups imported from Gaul and colour-coated ware beakers were common drinking vessels imported from Gaul or the Rhineland. Romano-British potteries began to make their own range of colour-coated wares, expanding the range of vessel types to include bowls, dishes and flagons as well as beakers.

Other pottery vessels were utilitarian jars, dishes and bowls used for cooking or storage. These were commonly made in coarse grey, black or orange fabrics. Most coarse wares were probably locally made but some were made further afield. An example of this is Black Burnished Ware which was made in Dorset.

Medieval Pottery

Saxo Norman Stamford Ware: In 877AD Leicester was finally defeated by the Danes after twelve long years of battle against the Viking invaders. The town, together with Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln and Stamford, became one of the five fortified centres within the Viking Danelaw.

Much of the archaeological evidence we have of this period in Leicester consists of the fine wheel thrown and glazed pottery imported from Stamford where a wide range of vessels were made, from cooking pots and bowls to spouted pitchers, jugs and dishes from the mid or later ninth century. Many of the fine table wares were decorated with a transparent lead glaze and, after circa 1150, with a bright copper green glaze, a useful piece of dating evidence for the archaeologist. The Stamford potters continued to supply Leicester with exceptionally high quality pottery well into the thirteenth century. It seems likely that this pottery was introduced to England by migrant potters from continental Europe where, unlike Britain, the art of making wheel thrown pottery had continued after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Early Medieval Potters Marston Ware: Potters Marston ware, chiefly jars, bowls and jugs, became the most commonly used pottery in the households of medieval Leicester and to the south and west of the county during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. These hand or coil built pots were made less than five kilometres south west of Leicester at the now deserted village of Potters Marston. Although the clay body is coarse, some of the potters were able to produce surprisingly fine pottery.

Analysis of the clay has pinpointed a source for the igneous rock inclusions to an outcrop of syenite at Croft, less than a mile from the village. This pottery is very easy to identify because this rock is clearly visible to the naked eye. This allows us to establish the trade and distribution patterns of the pottery, even where only tiny fragments of pot are found, thus helping us to understand the nature and extent of this industry.

Medieval Green Glazed Wares: The products of new industries, such as those based at Chilvers Coton, Nottingham, Stanion/Lyveden and somewhat further afield at Brill/Boarstall for example, appeared in Leicester and the country in increasing quantities during the thirteenth century. These represent the high point of medieval pottery production, in terms of technical expertise and artistry, in the region. The jugs in particular occur in a huge range of shapes, sizes and decoration and it is these characteristics, together with the inclusions which help us to discover where the pot was made, its date, and sometimes even the work of an individual potter.

Most of these glazed wares found in Leicester came from Chilvers Coton, where over sixty pottery kilns have been examined, the remains of an industry which dominated the local market for pottery from the mid thirteenth to the fifteenth century.

Later Medieval Midland Purple Ware: During the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries technological advances meant that much pottery became increasingly higher fired, sometimes almost to the point of vitrification. Locally, these hard fired, rather plain and utilitarian pots made at Chilvers Coton and Ticknall in Derbyshire, are known as Midland Purple ware, and they do generally range in colour from purple to dark red or greyish black with a metallic glaze.

New vessel forms reflecting changes in cooking and eating habits also become more common. These include lids and cups, pipkins - cooking pots with the addition of a handle and a pouring lip, dripping dishes - shallow vessels placed under a spit to catch the juices from roasting fowl or meat, and cisterns - large handled jars with a bung hole near the base used for the brewing and storage of ale or beer.

Late Medieval Cistercian and Early Post Medieval Blackware: Cistercian ware was first identified on ruined monastic sites inhabited by Cistercian monks before the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century, hence the name. We now know that these dark brown glazed pots were made at centres throughout England, including Chilvers Coton and Ticknall, together with Midland Purple ware the larger Midland Purple ware jars being used as saggars to protect the smaller vessels from excessive heat during firing in the kiln. This ware evolved into Post medieval Blackware after the dissolution.

The origins of these fine wheel thrown dark brown glazed pots, often decorated with applied motifs in white clay, remains something of a mystery. The pottery is technically very advanced and occurs in a range of table ware forms, most notably cups. Other Cistercian ware vessels included posset pots and chafing dishes; the latter was used for holding glowing embers of charcoal to heat the posset or rich spiced potage of curdled milk, which was placed in the posset pot above.