Reading a pot sherd — rims, bases, fabric

How to get a vessel out of a broken piece.

A sherd holds more than it seems. Rims give diameter (match the curve against a circle chart) and profile (everted, upright, clubbed) — the single most diagnostic element. Bases show footrings, string-cut spirals (wheel-thrown, cut off with a wire), or flat hand-built bottoms. Handles and spouts narrow form further.

The break is a window: fabric colour (and colour sandwiches showing firing conditions), temper inclusions, hardness. Surfaces carry technique — wheel rilling lines, burnish, glaze, slip, soot from cooking, interior limescale from water use.

For any sherd worth recording: photograph profile against a plain background, note estimated rim/base diameter, wall thickness, fabric description, and surface treatments inside and out. Ten well-read sherds tell a site's story; a bucket of unexamined ones tells nothing.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on pottery

Identifying pottery and ceramics — Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Identifying terracotta figurines — Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery — Shape equals cargo.

Identifying tiles and brick — Fabric, stamp, and format.

Identifying Roman samian ware — Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares — The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

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