The study of pottery is without doubt one of the most important tasks taken on by any archaeologist. These guides provide a guide to help you identify these important archeological artfacts
Pottery Resources Downloads
A Standard for Pottery Studies in Archaeology
This document was compiled by the three period-specific pottery study groups (PCRG, SGRP, MPRG) with the aim of creating the first, comprehensive, inclusive standard for working with pottery. The Standard is intended for use in all types of archaeological project, including those run by community groups, professional contractors and research institutions.
A Guide to the Classification of Medieval Ceramic Forms
A Guide to the Classification of Medieval Ceramic Forms (Medieval Pottery Research Group Occasional Paper 1) was published in 1998 with grant funding from English Heritage. It provides a definition and nomenclature for ceramic forms made between the end of the Roman period and the beginning of intensive industrial pottery production in the 17th century.
Pottery and Early Medieval Archaeology
Pottery studies can illuminate a number of key themes in early medieval archaeology.
This paper focus on trade, mobility and identity.in which recent studies have demonstrated that the traditional role of pottery as a dating tool both under utilises its potential and can also lead to misinformed chronologies.
It will show how elements of pottery manufacture, exchange and deposition and the techniques used to study these, including quantitative analysis, petrographic study and distribution analysis can be used to address wider questions.
This will draw on my research (focussed on southern England) as well as other recent studies and more well known research.
The presentation is aimed at non-specialists and will demonstrate how ceramic data can be applied to an increasingly wide range of archaeological questions and hopefully show that pottery is an important archaeological resource and not simply a dating tool.
Pottery through the Ages, A Brief Introduction
An Introduction to pottery British Isle from prehistory to the post medieval era . Covering all aspects of pottery manufacture, forms, fabrics and tempers it is a good basic guide to understand pottery in the Archaeological context.
Medieval Pottery Identification
A fantastic and clear to use guide on how to identify medieval pottery.
While it is very much focused on pottery from the Cambridgeshire region the information, fabrics and pictures can be used for most medieval fabrics that you may come across.