Some Fresh Naukratis Joins

Extract

A large body of sherd material, especially where the sherds are small, is often usefully looked at afresh by an eye unjaded by familiarity. Recently, the extensive collection of vase fragments from Naukratis in the British Museum has been brought together for the first time since before the war, and many hundreds of unincorporated sherds have been registered (in the sequence 1965. 9–30). Ideally, the sherds should be grouped by fabrics, but for administrative reasons it was felt necessary to arrange them in order of registration numbers. As this work was being carried out, a great many sherds were found to join. Most were previously joined and often published pieces, which had come apart and been separated over the years (many, indeed, had been registered unnecessarily in 1924 after coming adrift from their numbered companions).