Sandy ware, also known as Early Medieval Sandy ware, is a type of pottery found in Great Britain from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries. The pottery fabric is tempered with enough quartz sand mixed in with the clay for it to be visible in the fabric of the pot. Sandy ware was commonly used in Southeast England and the East Midlands.
The identifying feature of Sandy ware is the use of quartz sand as a temper. Sand helped bind the clay together in forming the object, and kept the finished object from cracking while being dried and subsequently fired. The amount of sand used and the size of the sand grains in making Sandy ware differed by region and time period in Britain. The pottery was typically handmade or thrown on a slow wheel and fired on a bonfire, until around the tenth century when potters began transitioning to using a fast wheel. [1]
Sandy wares are commonly found in Great Britain from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries. Archaeological excavations during the last fifty years have uncovered important areas of pottery production and use, including Southeast England and the East Midlands.
Archaeological excavations conducted at Lyminge, Kent from 2008 to 2010 uncovered over 6000 pottery sherds. Among the finds were sandy wares from the sixth to the tenth centuries, and the most important finds were from Canterbury. In Canterbury, mid to late Anglo Saxon pottery are predominantly Sandy wares and Shelly wares. The study revealed that the most common pottery type found in Kent during the early to mid Anglo-Saxon era was Sandy Ware, which included three different groups: fine sandy ware, sandy ware, and coarse sandy ware. Five Sandy Ware fabrics were identified during the study. [2]
Jars, cups and bowls were determined to be the predominant vessel types in the excavation at Lyminge. The majority of the pottery fragments uncovered had either no decoration or simple decoration, typically with incised lines. Shelly ware began to replace Sandy ware as the most commonly used pottery type in Kent during the 8th and 9th centuries. [2]
"Fine sandy ware" is defined as pottery with a hard and a slightly rough fabric, brownish-grey in colour with a sandy matrix. "Sandy ware" is divided into two different subtypes, referred to in the study as Fabric 75 and Fabric 76. Fabric 75 dates to the sixth to the seventh centuries. It has a hard fabric, with a rough, dimpled surface. Fabric colour is black or brownish-grey with a brown core. It has also has a fine, sandy matrix. Fabric 76 dates from the seventh to the eighth centuries. It is characterized as having a hard, course fabric. The colour is black and dark grey, and it has a sandy matrix. [2]
"Course Sandy ware" has two subtypes, fabric 78 and fabric 87. Fabric 78 has a soft, smooth fabric and is dark grey in colour. It has a sandy matrix with random sedimentary rock fragments. Fabric 87 has a hard, irregular fabric with an orange coloured outer surface and black core. It also has a sandy matrix and has thick-walls. [2]
Essex Micaceous Sandy ware, also known as Early Medieval Essex Micaceous Sandy ware, is commonly found in South Cambridgeshire from the eleventh to the twelfth centuries. This type of sandy ware is characterized by the use micaceous clays, which resulted in brown and grey-brown fabrics. Like most early medieval pottery, Essex sandy ware was handmade and wheel thrown. [3] The fabric is coarse and dimpled in texture and tempered with sand grains and mica. Pottery forms include jars, bowls, spouted bowls and curfew bells. [4]
Early Medieval Sandy ware appears in London for the first time in the last quarter of the tenth century. Shelly ware was also commonly used at the time. The pottery fabric was tempered with a large number of quartz sand grains. The sandy ware vessels were all handmade at the time and have thinner walls and are more roughly made than Late Saxon Shelly ware. The pottery forms of Early Medieval Sandy Ware and Early Medieval Sand and Shell ware are similar. Two sandy ware forms that have been found from this time period in London are the cooking-pot and the shallow dish. [5]
Medieval Sandy Ware first appeared in the East Midlands during the middle of the 12th century and was commonly found in the area until the end of the fourteenth century. Of the many pottery sherds found during archaeological excavations, there is very little evidence to determine pottery forms. Of the few sherds that could be identified, the forms were described as bowls, cooking pots, jars, and jugs. The pottery was possibly a mix of local and imported sandy ware types.
There were two types of Early Medieval ware, an earlier type and a later type. The first group dates from the twelfth to the thirteenth century. The characteristics of the pottery are a fabric that is orange to light grey in colour, the light grey colour typically has an oxidized brown surface. The fabric was tempered with numerous quartz sand grains. Clubbed rims were characteristic of this pottery. [6] The later Medieval Sandy ware type has a date range from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries. It is characterized by a pinkish-orange colour, sometimes with reduced, grey cores. The fabric is tempered with a large number of quartz sand particles and some iron oxide grains. A pale green glaze was seen on several of the pottery sherds. [6]
Deritend ware is a distinctive style of medieval pottery produced in Birmingham, England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There are three types of Deritend ware; a fine to moderately sandy, micaceous orange to red ware, used mainly for jugs, with some examples of bowls, dripping trays and aquamaniles, dating to the 13th to early 14th centuries; a black or, less frequently, grey ware with a brown core, also micaceous, used mainly for cooking pots/jars and less commonly for large unglazed jugs and skillets/pipkins, dating from possibly the late 12th century to the early 14th century; and a sandy brown ware with grey core used for cooking pots, dating from possibly the late 12th century to 13th century. Wasters i.e. pottery misfires have been found for all three wares in Birmingham. Glazed Deritend ware jugs were decorated with white slip lines and applied white clay strips, often roller stamped, and white clay pads, The more complex decorative schemes are in the North French style ; the decorated jugs closely resemble London-type ware and it is distinctly possible that the Deritend ware industry included migrant potters from the London area in the thirteenth century.
Dales ware is a type of pottery produced in the South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire areas of England and widely distributed across northern Britain during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
Black-burnished ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic. Burnishing is a pottery treatment in which the surface of the pot is polished, using a hard smooth surface. The classification includes two entirely different pottery types which share many stylistic characteristics. Black burnished ware 1 (BB1), is a black, coarse and gritty fabric. Vessels are hand made. Black burnished ware 2 (BB2) is a finer, grey-coloured, wheel thrown fabric.
Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic produced in the lower Nene Valley centred on Durobrivae from the mid-2nd to 4th centuries AD. The closest city is Peterborough, which vies with Northampton, Wisbech and London museums as a main repository and exhibition location of finds, arguably the most impressive of which are at the British Museum. The name of this type of ceramic is often abbreviated to NVCC.
Crambeck Ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic produced in North Yorkshire primarily in the 4th century AD.
Pingsdorf ware is a high fired earthenware, or proto-stoneware, that was produced between the late 9th and 13th century in different pottery centres on the Eastern margin of the Rhineland as well as the Lower Rhine region. Characteristic features of vessels in Pingsdorf ware are a yellow-coloured fine sand-tempered sherd and a red painting. It is archaeologically evident within various Medieval settlements of North Western Europe and thus represents an important chronological marker for the Medieval archaeology.
Humber ware is a type of Medieval ceramic produced in North Yorkshire, England in the late 13th to early 16th Centuries AD.
The basic chronology of the early town of Manda Island in the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya is divided into 6 different periods, based mostly on the types of imported pottery that has been found in different strata of the excavations. The first period, I, begins in the mid ninth century and is subdivided into four parts, a, b, c, and d, ending in the early eleventh century. Period II has two parts, A and B, though the divide between the two is rather vague and could be entirely arbitrary, and dates from the mid eleventh to the late twelfth for the former, and late twelfth to late thirteenth century for the latter. Period III runs from the late thirteenth century to the fourteenth when Period IV picks up and ends in the early Sixteenth. Period V covers the mid Sixteenth and all of the seventeenth, and the final period covers everything after the Seventeenth century.
Grey ware is pottery with a body that fires to grey. This type of pottery can be found in different archaeological sites around the world.
Shelly ware, is a type of pottery found in Great Britain from the seventh through the twelfth centuries. Shelly ware includes Late Saxon Shelly ware, Early Medieval Shelly Ware, and Lincolnshire Shelly Wares. The pottery fabric is tempered with shell powder or reduced shell. Shelly ware was typically handmade until the tenth century, when potters transitioned to wheel-thrown pottery. Shelly wares were manufactured and distributed in the Upper Thames Valley, southeastern coastal areas of Britain and the East Midlands.
Ancient Egyptian pottery includes all objects of fired clay from ancient Egypt. First and foremost, ceramics served as household wares for the storage, preparation, transport, and consumption of food, drink, and raw materials. Such items include beer and wine mugs and water jugs, but also bread moulds, fire pits, lamps, and stands for holding round vessels, which were all commonly used in the Egyptian household. Other types of pottery served ritual purposes. Ceramics are often found as grave goods.
Cord-marked pottery or Cordmarked pottery is an early form of a simple earthenware pottery. It allowed food to be stored and cooked over fire. Cord-marked pottery varied slightly around the world, depending upon the clay and raw materials that were available. It generally coincided with cultures moving to an agrarian and more settled lifestyle, like that of the Woodland period, as compared to a strictly hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Surrey whiteware or Surrey white ware, is a type of lead-glazed pottery produced in Britain from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The white-fired sandy earthenware was produced largely from kilns in Surrey and along the Surrey-Hampshire border. Surrey whitewares were the most commonly used pottery in London during the late medieval period. There are four classes of Surrey whiteware: Kingston-type, Coarse Border ware, Cheam whiteware and Tudor Green ware.
Border ware is a type of post-medieval British pottery commonly used in the South of England, London and then later in the early American colonies beginning in the sixteenth and ending in the nineteenth century with a height of popularity and production in the seventeenth century. The lead-glazed, sandy earthenware was produced from kilns along the border between Hampshire and Surrey. There are two classes of Border ware, fine whitewares and fine redwares.
Shelly-sandy ware(SSW) is a type of medieval pottery produced in Great Britain. The pottery fabric is tempered with both sand and shell, most commonly quartz sand and ground-up shell. The fabric is generally dark grey in colour with brown oxidised surfaces. SSW was typically handmade until the potters transitioned to wheel-thrown pottery production. The pottery was manufactured and distributed primarily from 1140—1220 AD in the Greater London area.
Ipswich ware is a type of Anglo-Saxon pottery produced in Britain between the eighth and ninth centuries AD. Manufactured in the Ipswich, Suffolk area, it is considered to be the first wheel-turned and mass-produced pottery in post-Roman Britain. The pottery is a simple, hard grey ware with little or no decoration. Most vessel types include jars, cooking pots and decorated pitchers. Ipswich ware was distributed primarily in eastern Britain, but was also traded in smaller numbers from Kent north to York and west to Oxfordshire.
Thetford ware is a type of English medieval pottery mass-produced in Britain between the late ninth and mid twelfth centuries AD. Manufactured in Norfolk and Ipswich, Suffolk, the pottery has a hard, sandy fabric, and is generally grey in colour. Most vessel types include cooking pots, bowls, jars, pitchers, and lamps.
Saintonge, historically spelled Xaintonge and Xainctonge, is a region of France located on the west central Atlantic coast, corresponding with the former province of the same name. The largest city is Saintes. Other principal towns include Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Jonzac, Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan, Royan, Marennes, Pons, and Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire.
