An Iron-age (1) Water Jar, Ancient Pottery. 1200 BC.
Size: height= 19, width= 15, diameter= 4 cm. Height= 7.4, width= 5.9,diameter= 1.5 inch.
Archaeologists have found pottery sherds at almost all regions of Iron Age settlements around Britain and at this time pots were handmade from local clay and fired in bonfire kilns, or a shallow pit. The clay would have been mixed with ‘temper’ such as quartz sand, pellets, crushed burnt flint or fired clay (grog), even organic material like grasses. This helped to reduce shrinking and cracking of the pots when drying. The color of the pot could be controlled by varying the amount of oxygen in the firing. People made different types of pots or decorated them in their own particular style in different parts of England so would not have been found on the same Iron Age settlement.
Iron Age people were not too particular about washing their vessels, which is why burnt remains of foods are found on the inside and sometimes the outside of the pot. The food was poured into a serving bowl for eating. Cooking pots were not usually decorated nor polished, whereas serving bowls could sometimes be decorated and were then polished by burnishing, this would be done by rubbing to achieve a glossy surface. The vessels produced during the Iron age consisted of, jars, bowls, beakers, cups and of course my favorite, the cooking pots.
