A small piece of ceramic found in a mole hill. You can just about make out two parallel grooves running left to right.
Image credit: A R Cane
location_on
photo
ondemand_video
forum
description
link
The grooves are very cool. They do indeed look just like the ones on this:
bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/z20-7CPoR0WjSZjL0x2afg
I'd be chuffed to be carrying that around in my pocket. What fun to have found it.
Looks amazing... As its a scheduled monument, be aware you have to hand that into the museum in Avebury (I presume). To be exact under UK law, even picking it up with that intention would be strictly illegal!
As a bare minimum all finds whether found on a SAM or not should be reported to the county FLO.
I'm not condoning Nicking Our Heritage of course. Yes people should definitely report what they find. And the person in the museum will tell them interesting things about it. And perhaps they;ll be given them back again.
But realistically, to be scientifically useful, haven't sherds have got to be of rims or lips or handles or bottoms or with unusual decoration or actually part of a massive pot that's been excavated. They might have traces of Interesting Contents on them I suppose, but isn't this unlikely if it's been messed about with by moles and is not in situ? Perhaps in my ignorance I am underestimating the importance of such a thing. Though a little sherd is not exactly the saxon jewellery hoard.
I know, you're tutting. You're tutting because you think I should know better and that I should not, especially on the internet, advocate carrying bits of pottery from molehills around in pockets even if they make you grin. I apologise.
If the tut didn't make the sound but was only partially vocalised, is it still a tut? ;)
Its a tricky one isn't it. One we've recently discussed on the Peak District prehistory group concerning flints. I'm of the opinion they should all be recorded and go into the lovely finds.org.uk database for future research. The mere existence of the find could be of use to a researcher in future. But then what? Box under the bed? Box in the basement of a museum never to be seen again, especially not by people without degrees in archaeology like the majority of us? I don't have an answer for the "what then" question, just the what should I do with it first question. Record it. Sorted.
Yes, I guess technically I should hand it in, but bearing in mind that it's only 2.5x1.5cm in size, not the most spectacular piece of ceramic anyone's ever found and that it would probably end up in the back of a drawer, unloved and unseen for decades, I'd rather hang on to it, show it to my friends, relatives, etc. and have it appreciated for years to come. That might seem a little selfish but, I've been in the back rooms of too many museums and seen things I would have killed for to find, i.e. beautiful flint hand axes just in dusty, uncatalogued boxes.
Items such as this should be reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme finds.org.uk/
The lady you could speak to concerning your bit of pot is Katie Hinds, who I beleive is curruntly the finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wiltshire, well she was last year when I showed her some of my finds.
wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/services/index.php?Action=3
This is all voluntary of course.