Some thoughts on the history of reference collections in the UK
Clive Orton · UCL Discovery (University College London) · 2005
This paper concentrates on the development of reference collections for pottery fabrics and forms in the UK since the 1970s, acknowledging that there are important reference collections for other classes of material, e.g. animal bones, seeds, about which the writer knows very little. However, in all cases the reasons for reference collections are the same, to ensure that valid comparisons of assemblages can be made, both within and between sites. A brief consideration of the theory of classification is needed, in order to provide a framework within which the issues can be discussed. The rapid increase in the amounts of material being excavated from the 1970s onwards stimulated the need for a common ‘language’ for pottery fabrics and forms. A range of solutions were proposed: some computer-based, some paper-based and one using the material itself as a sort of physical memory. This last, the Polstore system, will be described in some detail; other suggestions will be presented more briefly. At the time, computer-based approaches were generally not successful, partly because of their inability to capture some of the essential characteristics, particularly of fabrics. Many of the approaches simply presented a more-or-less structured collection of ‘types’, and left the user to search it as best they could, while what was really needed was a procedure to lead from the unknown in the hand to the known in the collection. Can modern computing technology achieve both of these aims, which have so far eluded us?