Specialists discuss post-excavation strategy for Ness pottery assemblage

Friday, December 6, 2024

Gathering in the pottery room. Site directors Mark and Nick with pottery specialists Ann, Jan and Roy. (📷 Anne Mitchell) — Gathering in the pottery room. Site directors Mark and Nick with pottery specialists Ann, Jan and Roy. Oh, and Tam the dog.
(📷 Anne Mitchell)

On Monday, the Ness pottery team, Jan Blatchford, Ann MacSween and Roy Towers, and site directors Anne, Mark and Nick gathered at dig HQ to discuss the way forward with the site’s huge ceramic assemblage.

Pottery sherd with circular decoration - the only example from the site so far. (📷 Sigurd Towrie) — Pottery sherd with circular decoration – the only example from the site. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

There is no bigger collection of Neolithic pottery in Britain and we have vast quantities to consider, contained in (I’ve just done a rough count) 350 large museum boxes. It’s a daunting undertaking!

What we have is clearly special and needs close consideration in many ways, as Jan, Roy and Ann have learned from their combined 55 years of involvement so far!

From the first year of excavations, we scrutinised the pottery as it came in from the trenches. Much has already been cleaned and much study is ongoing.

The remainder must now be cleaned, measured, weighed and examined. We have a growing volunteer team working on that initial task – the “triage” stage – as we call it. The sherds are then passed to Jan and Roy for detailed examination and to fill in our records.

Ann, Jan and Nick peruse the ceramics catalogue. (📷 Anne Mitchell)

But it’s not just about a straightforward cataloguing of all the sherds. We know that the Ness pottery assemblage spans the entire Orcadian Neolithic – c4000-2500BC – and we think it also covers the known ceramic style of the period.

Cleaned and looking gorgeous. The delicate and finely decorated pot sherd from outside Structure Twelve's south-western corner. (Ole Thoenies) — Cleaned and looking gorgeous. A delicate and finely decorated pot sherd from outside Structure Twelve’s south-western corner. (📷Ole Thoenies)

We can see it is richly decorated in ways seen elsewhere but also, in some cases, unique to the Ness. Do these difference in technologies and style tell us about different choices made by the potters, or their “customers”? Why did the potters change styles and technologies? What are changes telling us about the Ness and its people?

We must tussle too with how it gets into the archaeology of the Ness – much of the pottery in the higher levels on site arrived at its final resting place within the midden used to bury the buildings at the end of the complex’s life.

Incised decoration on a Ness pot sherd. (📷 Tom O'Brien) — Incised decoration on a Ness pot sherd. (📷 Tom O’Brien)

There are some complete vessels, but not many, and the rest are fragments, scattered across the site. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that it’s carelessly dumped.

We need to think carefully and amass organised details and information to illuminate the process of deposition and what it is telling us.

We already have work well in hand analysing the residues within the pottery vessels and we’re looking forward to the full results of that. Studies of basketry and other impressions on Ness ceramic sherds is also ongoing and we continue to look out for fingerprints.

Prehistoric pottery is exciting! If you feel moved to find out a great deal more, have a read at Roy’s excellent series of posts.