Ceramics home: Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age

In Britain, pottery emerges 'fully formed' in the centuries after 4000 BC. The Museum's collection is small but reasonably representative of the range of ceramics circulating in the Thames valley between this time and the eve of the Roman conquest. Much of it was casually recovered during river dredging or gravel digging operations.

Most vessels are hand-made, bonfire-fired and likely to be of local manufacture. Forms encompass Neolithic round-based open bowls used for storage or cooking, flat-based beakers and larger Early and Middle Bronze Age urns placed with (or containing the ashes of) the dead, and later Bronze Age and Iron Age jars, cups and bowls used to prepare and serve food and drink.

A range of materials were employed to 'open' or temper the clays, including crushed burnt flint, fired clay ('grog') pellets and quartz sand. Many of the vessels also bear impressed or incised decoration using finger-tips, finger-nails, bird-bones, toothed combs and twisted cord or string.

Featured types

Peterborough ware (-3400 - -2500)

Late Neolithic & Early Bronze Age Beakers (-2400 - -1800)

Collared urns (-2200 - -1400)

Deverel-Rimbury (-1600 - -1000)

Post Deverel-Rimbury (-1000 - -700)

Iron Age (-700 - 50)

Related objects

There are 77 related objects.

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A13670 vessel. Neolithic	A13668 vessel. Neolithic	A10213 vessel. Neolithic	A5940 bowl. 1901-2000
A23378 bowl. Earlier Neolithic	A13679 bowl. Late Bronze Age	412 bowl. Late Bronze Age	A10212 bowl. Late Bronze Age
A25853 bowl. Late Bronze Age	P34 bowl. Late Bronze Age	A9964 bowl. Neolithic	49.87/30 bowl. Neolithic
49.87/3 bowl. Neolithic	49.87/5 bowl. Neolithic	49.87b bowl. Neolithic	L86/27 bowl. Neolithic; 3500BC-2750BC
P13 bowl. Neolithic; 3500BC-2750BC	C594 bucket urn. Middle Bronze Age	A14687 cup. Late Bronze Age	P24 cup. Late Bronze Age
P26 cup. Late Bronze Age	10416 cup. Late Bronze Age	A9513 jar. Bronze Age	P14 jar. Bronze Age

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