Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology		The Collections:
	PotWeb:	Ceramics online @ the Ashmolean Museum	•	Early Europe & Near East
			•	Classical to Medieval
			•	Europe from 1500
			•	Oriental & Islamic

The ABC of pottery in archaeology

How old is it? How long was it in use?

Pottery is common enough to be found in a continuous series of datable associations. These may be established through stratigraphic sequences to a range of independent dating mechanisms, for instance documentary evidence, coin evidence and scientific dating techniques. On rare occasions the vessel itself may include a date, as illustrated here. This vessel was probably a special commission to celebrate an anniversary.

A Staffordshire type slipware, a posset pot dated 1702, a special commission

What happened to the pottery?

The ABC of ...

© Copyright University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 2000 The Ashmolean Museum retains the copyright of all materials used here and in its Museum Web pages. last updated: jcm/27-jun-2000