“Who has been drinking from my little cup?” Preliminary processing of pottery finds

Even though we are not living in a fairytale, finding the answer to similar questions like the one above is the reason of pottery analyses.

During one week of hard work on the field an enormous amount of pottery was transferred into the lab. Because of the two days lasting heavy rain, the entire team gathered their power and washed 8 crates of ceramics, filling every corner of the room designated for drying pottery.

As the next step, the quantitative analysis of pottery takes place in the restorer’s lab. The ceramic material is counted, being sorted after functional categories (pots, bowls, beakers, jugs…), ware types (red slip ware, oxidized plain ware…) and morphological parts (rim, base, handle…). The typical fragments (rim, base, decorated shards) are drawn and introduced into the database.

By each day more and more interesting ceramic finds appear, as turibula, snake pots, face pots, terra sigillata representing roman soldiers and many other vessels, which serve as valuable source of information and are also a delight for the eyes.