Imogen Wood (University of Exeter, UK)

The latent social reality contained within a pot sherd provides a unique opportunity to read the technical and social choices inherently involved in its production by unravelling the story of the clay. Ethnographic analogy has demonstrated that clay sourcing and extraction is never undertaken without an adherence to the political, economic and social order of a society, no matter how small the scale of production. Irrespective of whether a pot was produced on a site under investigation or obtained elsewhere, the clay used to make a vessel will always be a statement about the people that owned it, and the contribution of this data to archaeology should not be underestimated.

Petrographic analysis of post-Roman pottery from Cornwall has demonstrated that the potter’s choice of clay was not solely dictated by its technical properties and clay appears to have had a social presence and identity of its own. The continual extraction and utilisation of Gabbroic clay in Cornwall, despite the presence of many other suitable clays, from the Neolithic through into the Post-Roman period represents perhaps the most amazing case of continuity in raw material choice. Why? Social or Technical?

The implications of selecting a particular clay are typically considered to be the personal choice of the potter, which as an individual tells us about the choices he or she made. However, when choice goes beyond the person and becomes the choice of a group, such as workshop, a village or even a whole region, the inference of those choices are very important in contributing to our understanding of their underlying social meaning. This is when the choosing of a clay source becomes a social statement stretching far beyond the production of pottery and speaks of the unseen intricate social networks in operation. Through the use of petrographic data from ceramics on various sites in Cornwall, and my recent ethnographic study in Bolivia of traditional pottery production, this paper will explore the social meaning of choices presented in the humble pot sherd.