An artsy conveniently consolidated stack of North Devon Gravel Tempered Earthenware potsherds I made while counting them to catalogue.
Note the dual tones of grey and pink in the fabric (the clay part) of the ceramic. This isn’t the best picture to see it in, but on close inspection you can spot bits of gravel baked into the fabric: that process is called tempering and is where this ceramic type gets the second half of its name.
About This Artifact:
North Devon GT is an utilitarian ceramic from England commonly found on American Colonial sites from around 1680 to mid 18th century when another type of coarse, everyday pottery came into fashion. Common uses for this type were as milkpans, jugs, “and small storage jars though the latter are uncommon after about 1720 (Ivor Noël Hume, A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America).”
Notes:
It’s not the most dazzling ceramic type, but it’s one of my favorites for how unique the fabric coloration is, which gives a relatively easy ID! It’s also very sturdy for an earthenware which means we’ve found dinner plate sized milk pan bases still mostly intact on our current site (exciting!! Big pottery chunks!) made of the stuff. The fact that we’re finding it in good quantities also helps us confirm the probable date range of the site. Yay ceramics!!
