Ben Jervis (University of Southampton, UK)

As archaeologists we are keen to split society into groups, be it young and old, secular or religious, military or civilian. Within Southampton a set of communities can be identified historically – the French and Italian merchants who occupied the waterfront, the friars, the smiths and the occupants of the castle for example. The community can be further fragmented into those who live within the walled town and those who occupied the suburbs. They can be split of ethnic, economic or social grounds. But how clear are these splits in the archaeological record? The most frequent artefact on all sites in Southampton is pottery. Recent work in Southampton has expanded an already large dataset to include pottery excavated from the castle, suburbs, friary, mercantile area and poorer areas of the medieval town, based on historical records. It is regularly accepted that a study of material culture can lead to unravelling such social differences. This study contrasts the pottery used by these ‘disparate’ groups to challenge this assumption and to create a more contextual understanding of pottery’s role as a social marker, in terms of its distribution, use, role in the household and deposition. By testing common assumptions on a well established dataset with suitable historical context it is demonstrated that pottery and material culture as a whole is a very powerful tool for understanding the ‘natural’ fragmentation when used appropriately, and the results it gives may be unexpected and contrast with our preconceptions about how medieval households and institutions functioned.