2 - The Potential of Pottery as Archaeological Evidence

Summary

Aims

The aims of this chapter are to look at the archaeological uses made of pottery in the various phases of study described in Chapter 1, to see which have stood the test of time, to point the reader forward to chapters that will deal with such themes in more detail (Part III) and to provide a general rationale for the practical approaches described in Part II. Clearly, not all assemblages, or even all sites, will yield evidence of all the types to be described below.

Discernment is needed to know what sort of questions can reasonably be asked of a particular group of pottery – this is best (perhaps only) learnt by experience, but we hope that the theoretical discussions of Part III will help the reader to avoid the twin pitfalls of under- and over-interpretation. It is nevertheless true that when excavating and recording pottery we do not know all the questions that are likely to be asked of it, and that therefore some ideas of ‘good standard practice’ in recording and summarising pottery assemblages are very useful, although they may be augmented by special information to meet special needs. We hope to provide such practices in Part II, without giving the reader the claustrophobic feeling of a rigid system fixed for all times and all places. We should make it clear before starting that just because an idea belongs to an earlier phase of study, or paradigm, that does not mean it is of no use to today's worker.