FIELD WALKING
INTRODUCTION TO DESCRIPTION OF FINDS
The purpose of this section is to lay out the basis for classifying, naming and dating the pottery fabrics and other finds. This was not a straight-forward process, particularly for the Post-Medieval pottery, which has been subjected to little research in the East Midlands. Nevertheless, it was essential to do it to provide the evidence and justification for the way in which ceramic fabric types and other finds have been named and dated, as this is the foundation for the analysis that has led to the history of settlement of Bingham presented here.
For pottery, each fabric type is described, where necessary, and its date range is given. Other finds are treated differently, but the basic purpose of this section is the same for them all.
DATE RANGES
The date ranges used for individual ceramic fabric types and other finds are those recommended by the specialists who are responsible for the identifications. Fitting these within a standard prehistoric and historic timescale proved difficult because changes in ceramic style did not necessarily coincide with divisions of time used by historians and archaeologists. After much consideration it was decided to adopt the date ranges for ceramics for the historical period recommended by the Medieval Pottery Research Group (See the MPRG Guide to Bibliography).
- Prehistory to 43AD
- Roman 43 - 400
- Early to Middle Anglo-Saxon 400 – 850
- Saxo-Norman 850 - 1150
- Medieval divided into:
- Early 1150 - 1250
- Highly Decorated 1250 - 1400
- Late Medieval 1400 - 1500
- Post Medieval: 1500 – 1750
- Modern 1750 +
FIELD NUMBERS
Throughout this section reference will be made to field numbers. These are all shown on Figure 1.1, which for convenience can be kept to one side of your screen while you are reading the text.