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Prehistoric pottery was retrieved from two contexts, C1005 and C1007. The material derives from two distinct chronological horizons, C1005 producing early to middle Neolithic pottery, context C1007 producing pottery of later Neolithic and early Bronze Age style.
In the fabric descriptions supplied hyphenated colours indicate the variation in colour expected from poorly controlled firing conditions, the first colour being that most in evidence. Grit sizes are expressed as small (>3mm) and medium (3-6mm). Distinctive particles smaller than 0.02mm are described as dust. The later Neolithic and early Bronze Age sherds were washed in order to clarify the detail of fabric and decoration, but in view of the friable nature of the early Neolithic pottery only a few sherds of this material were washed. No thin section analysis has been done and identification has been using a 10x lens. Given the limited representation of a small number of vessels with widely varying chronologies quantification by weight has not been considered helpful, instead the minimum number of vessels has been suggested on the basis of fabric, form, and decoration where present. None of the pottery has been the subject of conservation.
All the pottery from context C1005 comprises sherds from Grimston style bowls, or, in all likelihood, a single bowl. The external surface is mid-brown in colour, the internal surface is dark grey and the fabric also dark grey. The surfaces have numerous small angular cavities from which grits have leached, the remaining grits comprise only a few grains of mica and rare sub-rounded quartz grains. Wall thickness varies from 4 to 6 mm. A total of 17 sherds over 102 mm in size is present, together with a few smaller fragments, all plain body sherds. The total sherd weight is 100 gm, representing probably less than 10% of a single vessel.
In contrast to the Grimston Ware previously reported upon from Nosterfield, this pottery does not have the white residues of limestone/chert, suggesting that the leached grits may have been a purer calcite.
Context C1007 produced a total of eight sherds representing vessels in several late Neolithic or early Bronze Age traditions.
Peterborough Ware: Single body sherd from a jar, buff-brown external surface, dark grey internal surface, dark grey core, with numerous small and medium angular quartz grits, the clay matrix containing angular quartz grains. Wall thickness variable, typically 9 mm. Decorated with two rows of fingernail impressions. A second sherd in a similar fabric has occasional impressions from the end of a small (2 mm diameter) stick or the like.
Grooved Ware (probable): Four small fragments, probably from different vessels, but all in a similar fabric, have orange brown external surfaces and dark grey internal surfaces and fabrics. Small to medium angular calcite grits, while a few grains of quartz are present and, in one sherd, a few chert grits. Wall thicknesses vary from 7 to 8 mm. No decoration is evident. In the absence of diagnostic features it is difficult to assign these few sherds to any particular style, but their wall thickness is similar to that of the Grooved Ware vessels previously excavated at Nosterfield (Vyner 1998).
Beaker: Two sherds from the same vessel, one of the sherds noticeably more abraded than the other. External surface reddish-brown, internal surface and fabric dark grey, the fine sandy fabric has grains of mica, small limestone grits and medium sized pieces of grog. Wall thickness 8mm. Decoration comprises a zone of short diagonal impressions flanked above and below by a single comb-impressed line. Above that are two converging lines of comb impressions.
It may be noted that while the Grimston Ware fabric has numerous calcitic grits which had leached out leaving the usual 'corky' appearance, calcitic grits in the Grooved Ware had not dissolved, reflecting either a shorter period of deposition, different context characteristics, or a combination of both factors.
Although very small, this assemblage is interesting in two respects. Firstly, the earlier Neolithic Grimston Ware and the later Peterborough Ware and probable Grooved Ware closely reflect the pottery previously found in earlier excavations at Nosterfield. Secondly, the Beaker sherds add a further, and chronologically slightly later, dimension to that assemblage, underlining still further the similarities between the Nosterfield pottery assemblage and that from Marton-le-Moor, between the rivers Nidd and Swale, some 18km to the south, where Grimston Ware, Peterborough Ware and Grooved Ware was also joined by a small amount of Beaker (Manby 1996). Beyond this, the regional context for this material has been presented in the earlier report on pottery from Nosterfield.
Blaise Vyner
January 1999
Manby, T. G. 1996. 'Prehistoric Pottery: Marton-le-Moor and Roecliffe', unpublished report for Northern Archaeological Associates (Barnard Castle)
Vyner, B. B. 1998. Neolithic Pottery from Nosterfield, unpublished report for Mike Griffiths and Associates