The Saxon and Medieval Pottery of London: A Review

Abstract

A SERIES of large, datable pottery assemblages has been excavated in the City of London, principally from the Thames waterfront. The archaeological context of these groups and the methods used to date them are reviewed. With confirmatory evidence from elsewhere in the City, these groups provide a closely dated sequence which covers the 10th to the mid 15th centuries.

Quantification of selected groups and petrological analysis have led to the isolation of many of the pottery sources supplying London. The date range, frequency and origin of these wares are described.

The conclusions demonstrate that there existed in the late Saxon period a remarkable trade in pottery from the Oxford area to London; that by the late 12th century a wheelthrown glazed ware industry in the London area was exporting pottery throughout England and beyond; that Rouen ware jugs were being imported to London by the beginning of the 13th century, and providing a prototype for the distinctive London-type Rouen-copy jugs; and that there are distinguishing features which, in London at least, enable late medieval pottery to be identified and dated within a third of a century.