WVSW | East Anglian medieval pottery

WVSW - Waveney Valley Sandy Coarseware

Generally hard with a powdery feel, orange or reddish buff with a grey or buff core, or fully reduced. Contains common white and clear rounded quartz <0.5mm in diameter (clearly visible in surfaces), sparse coarse ferrous oxide 0.5-3.0mm across, and sparse calcareous fragments c.2mm in diameter. Vessels are wheelmade. Linear arrangement of sand?

TS sample description (P. Quinn): Fine to coarse sand sized rounded to sub-rounded inclusions of quartz, polycrystalline quartz, chert and rare ferruginous inclusions and siltstone. Less common silt-sized inclusions of quartz and rare mica and uneven distribution of sand grains indicates temper. Non-vitrified, non-calcareous oxidised clay matrix. Numerous poorly hydrated lumps of base clay without temper, also confirming intentional addition of sand sized inclusions. Frequent meso- and macro-elongate voids.

Example from Hoxne. Microscope examples from Rickinghall and Eye.

WVSW - Waveney Valley Sandy Coarseware (Norfolk)

Abundant fine-medium sand, sparse fine chalk, sparse burnt-out organics, sparse ferrous oxide (cf MESCW). Generally square-beaded rim forms.

TS description (H. Page): Poorly sorted, few, rounded to sub-rounded, equant and elongate, coarse to very fine-grained quartz and microcrystalline quartz. Common elongate biotite mica, rare small, rounded, equant chert and quartzite and muscovite mica. Heterogeneous, dark brown, vitrified, noncalcareous matrix. Few dark brown, discordant textual features with high optical density and sharp to diffuse boundaries. Frequent meso-channels and vughs.

Example from possible production site at Thorpe Abbotts.

WVSW - Waveney Valley Sandy Coarseware

WVSW - Waveney Valley Sandy Coarseware (Norfolk)

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