Pottery Analysis
One way that archaeologists can date different features and layers in the soil is by studying the objects that they find in each layer.
Pottery is especially useful for dating because archaeologists have studied it so much. An individual piece of pottery (sherd) can tell us a lot about how and when a site was being used.
What happens after an excavation?
Studying and recording pottery finds can take a long time. For every week of excavation, it can take up to 3-5 weeks to clean, conserve and record all of the objects and features archaeologists have found.
A precise record of objects and features, including where they were found, is written up in a final excavation report. If archaeologists didn't make a careful record of their excavations, all of the valuable information they discovered about their excavation sites would be lost.
How are finds organised?
Recording, or cataloguing, objects and conserving them starts with organising finds into types. Finds could be organised based on things like what objects look like or how they were used.
Important characteristics archaeologists look for in pottery includes its fabric (the colour of the clay and what it's made from), texture, design, size and how it was made.
How is pottery assessed?
Pottery specialists can often tell the shape and size of a pot from a single broken piece (sherd). If they have a piece of pottery from the rim of a pot (a 'rim sherd'), they can use a rim chart to work out how big the original pot would have been.
