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Description: | Thetford ware vessels and sherds
Collection of material excavated by B.K. Davison at a series of sites in Thetford in the 1960s in advance of town development. One of the sites had been the location for several kilns and the other was a church, abandoned in the early medieval period. The material is mostly Saxo-Norman in date and, together with material excavated in the late 1940s and 1950s, was instrumental in deepening understanding of the importance of Thetford in this period. The collection includes the site archive of over 160 boxes of material, mainly tens of thousands of sherds from Thetford ware pottery kilns, together with pieces of the kilns themselves, and animal bones indicative of horn working and a rabbit warren. Other significant industries represented by the collection are metalworking, leatherworking, bell-founding and various processes of the textile industry. These finds indicate the decline of Thetford after the 12th century, following a the Late Saxon period when Thetford was at its peak, being one of the six largest towns of England. The collection includes thousands of pottery sherds of St. Neot's ware. Many of the pottery sherds from the kilns themselves have textile impressions on them, proving useful evidence of weaves which otherwise rarely survive. The pottery found in the kilns and at the site was used to broaden understanding of how the firing was organised. The collection also includes a few Romano-British finds.
Following his excavations in Thetford, B.K. Davison went on to become an Inspector of Ancient Monuments for English Heritage. Now retired, he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a was a founder of the Institute of Field Archaeologists. He was awarded the OBE for services to archaeology. | Format: | 45 artefacts together with 160 boxes of site archive material | Temporal: | Medieval 1066-1500 Saxon 400-1066 Romano-British 0-500 | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | +44 (0)1603 493623 | Telephone: | +44 (0)1603 493625 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:7139 | Format: | 45 artefacts together with 160 boxes of site archive material | Go to resource |
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