The Pottery from 26-27 Staple Gardens, Winchester
Alan Vince, Kate Steane · 2004
th century and within this range includes a group of late Roman pottery, most of which is residual, and a collection of 11 th to 13 th -century date. The latter is mostly well-stratified and several phases of deposition can be recognised. From these it is possible to reconstruct the pottery supply to the site from the pre-conquest 11 th century through to the middle of the 13 th century. Later pottery comes mainly from garden soils and no material dating between the late 13 th and the 15 th centuries was recognised in the collection. Methodology The analysis of the Staple Gardens pottery was undertaken in several stages. In the first stage, the pottery was quickly examined (AGV) and a rough terminus post quem for each context was established. On the basis of these spot dates the site stratigraphy was phased and six or seven stratigraphically unrelated strands of stratigraphy were established (the Cranebase, the Petrol interceptor tank trench, the Soakaway excavation, Units D and E, Units F and G and Unit K). Meanwhile, the pottery was recorded in detail. Initially, all of the featured sherds were extracted, given drawing numbers and examined at x20 magnification using a binocular microscope (AGV). This enabled a number of broad ware groups to be established. However, in order to test the integrity of these groups samples were taken for thin section and chemical analysis (see Appendix 1). On the basis of these studies some further samples were taken and studied and then a modified ware group classification was used to record the entire collection (KS). This created a digital archive, a copy of which is deposited with the site archive.