Prehistoric Pottery Production In Charnwood Forest

David Knight (principal investigator, Trent and Peak Archaeology), Edward Faber (Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham), John Carney (British Geological Survey), Patrick Marsden (University of Leicester Archaeological Services), Jane Evans (British Geological Survey) and Julian Henderson (Dept of Archaeology, University of Nottingham)

Funded by English Heritage through the Historic Environment Enabling Programme (HEEP).

Recent petrographic studies of later prehistoric pottery from sites in the East Midlands have revealed a highly unusual and distinctive fabric characterised by angular granitoid inclusions that may derive from the Mountsorrel granodiorite – a tiny (c. 4 km²) outcrop of igneous rock located on the eastern flank of Charnwood Forest, between Leicester and Loughborough (Knight 2002, 138-140, Knight et al. 2003).  This project aims to test by means of electron microprobe and isotope analysis the model of ceramic production and distribution that has been proposed on the basis of petrographic analysis of prehistoric granodiorite-tempered pottery and to define more precisely the potential raw material sources.

First Stage: Petrographic and Microprobe Analysis

David Knight, Edward Faber, John Carney and Patrick Marsden

The key aim of this stage was to test by means of electron microprobe analysis and additional petrographic study of pottery inclusions and potential rock and clay sources the model of ceramic production and distribution that has been proposed on the basis of thin section analyses of prehistoric granodiorite-tempered pottery (Knight et al., 2003) and to provenance more closely potential raw material sources.

Mountsorrel granodiorite: prominent amongst the mineral assemblage are zoned plagioclase (Pl), perthitic alkali feldspar (dark bands Na-feldspar, lighter bands K-feldspar), quartz (Q) and iron titanium oxides (white crystals)

Granodiorite inclusion in Iron Age pottery from Aston-upon-Trent, Derbys, exhibiting a similar microstructure but not the full mineral suite associated with rock samples (only alkali feldspar, quartz and iron titanium oxides)

Proposed Second Stage: Isotope Analysis

Jane Evans, David Knight, Edward Faber, Julian Henderson, John Carney and Patrick Marsden

In this stage of the project we propose to compare and contrast the results of the petrographic and electron microprobe analyses of the pottery, rock and clay samples with results from isotope analyses of the same samples.

 References

Knight, D. 2002. ‘A regional ceramic sequence: pottery of the first millennium BC between the Humber and the Nene’, in A. Woodward and J.D. Hill (eds) Prehistoric Britain. The Ceramic Basis. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 119-142.

Knight, D., Marsden, P. and Carney, J. 2003. ‘Local or non-local? Prehistoric granodiorite-tempered pottery in the East Midlands’. In Gibson, A. (ed.) Prehistoric Pottery: People, Pattern and Purpose. BAR International Series 1156, Oxford, 111-125.