Early Anglo-Saxon ceramics from East Anglia : a microprovenience study

A history of Saxon ceramic studies precedes a proposed theoretical framework to replace the present chronology which is based on unreliable documentary sources. The main body of the thesis details the programme of petrological analysis which was carried out on the ceramics from 36 East Anglian Early Saxon settlements. This involved a microprovenience study characterising the fabrics present on each site, and assessing changes through time in their production and distribution. Comparative samples were taken from 12 funerary assemblages, and theories were tested about the relationships of potte~y from domestic and cemetery sites. No evidence was found for the existence of specialist producers of funerary pottery, there being little difference between settlement and cemetery ceramics. Analysis of settlement locations suggested a strong element of continuity of land units throughout the Saxon period. Examination of the fabrics and their distribution suggests an evolution in pottery production, concomitant with a move from an acephalous to a ranked society. The wares of semi-specialist potters could be seen as belonging to the later stages of this evolutionary process, their distribution being confined to political or tribal units. On the basis of fabric and decoration, two such units Were defined and two others indicated. The final stage of the evolutionary process involved the appearance of a further tier in the political hierarchy, and the removal of the control of pottery production from the leaders of small rural political units to the head of the East Anglian Kingdom. Mass production of pottery by full-time specialists was then centralised in an urban context at Ipswich.