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

A Vessel for everyman and his family

What purpose did it serve?
Containers were used for the preparation of food, storage, eating and drinking, serving at table, dispensing medicines, industrial needs and even as funerary urns.
Regional variations in ceramic forms abound; there are marked differences between that most functional of form: the jar, used for cooking and storage. These technically unsophisticated wares met consumer demand over a very long period. Jugs became numerically more abundant in the thirteenth century. Materials other than clay were used for storage and cooking: wooden barrels and metal cooking vessels.	Large shouldered jar, glazed around the rim only

A Vessel for ...

How is a vessel defined?

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