VESSEL

9 abraded sherds of medieval coarse ware pottery recovered from casual observation of ground works for a pipe line at Higher Weathergrove, Sandford Orcas, Dorset. The assemblage is divided between two fabric types. The first of which comprises five body sherds and one base sherd of 11th-12th century cooking pot. The fabric generally has a light grey or buff core with buff, brown or orange surfaces. The inclusions consist of frequent poorly sorted rounded and sub rounded quartz (some white and some rose coloured), occasional angular flint or chert and oolitic limestone <5mm. The vessels are hand made and frequently externally fire blackened. The sherds vary in size from 23.44mm x 22.57mm x 4.98mm thick (3.44g) to 54.61mm x 38.05mm x 5.11mm thick (17.23g). The total weight of this assemblage is 50.73g. The second fabric group comprises three small sherds of 13th century sand tempered pottery. the fabric varies from oxidised red-orange externally and reduced dark grey internally to reduced dark grey throughout. The inclusions comprise a background of fine rounded quartz (<0.1mm) and moderate larger rounded to sub-rounded quartz (<2mm)and occasional sub-angular flint or chert (<1mm). The sherds vary in size from 13.51mm x 11.10mm x 4.36mm thick (0.95g) up to 22.01mm x 20.56mm x 7.10mm thick (5.05g). The latter being a small base-angle sherd. The total weight of this assemblage is 8.82g making the total weight of both fabrics 59.53g.