Archaeological monitoring and recording/Watching brief: the monitoring of development works by an archaeologist.
Archaeological project: any programme of work that involves the collection and/or production of information about an archaeological site, assemblage or object in any environment, including in the field, under water, at a desk or in a laboratory. Examples of an archaeological project include: intrusive projects such as excavation, field evaluation, watching brief, surface recovery and the destructive analysis of objects; non-intrusive projects such as landscape or building survey, aerial survey, remote sensing; off-site research such as desk-based assessment and the recording of objects or object assemblages. The re-investigation of archives in curatorial care also constitutes an archaeological project (Perrin et al 2014).
Context or Contextual unit: a single stratigraphic or surveyed unit recorded separately in the field; eg an excavated deposit or feature, a grid square for surface collection.
Diagnostic: a pottery type or form that is characteristic of a particular time period (chronologically diagnostic), product (typologically diagnostic) or culturally defined area (culturally diagnostic).
Data management plan (DMP): a plan for the management of digital data throughout the course of a project that includes procedures for data types, formats, standards, access, data storage, preservation and resourcing.
Fabric: the identifier given to a type of pottery that has been characterised by the substance it is made from, ie the clay and inclusions. Fabrics are usually denoted by codes, either as a unique number or as combinations of characters and numerals.
Fabric type series: a reference collection of specimens of every pottery fabric identified within a specific area, accompanied by a descriptive catalogue.
Form: the shape of a pottery vessel or component thereof.
MLPRG: The Medieval and Later Pottery Research Group – www.medievalpottery.org.uk.
PCRG: Prehistoric Ceramic Research Group – www.pcrg.org.uk.
Pottery: vessels made of fired clay, complete or fragmented. Some fired clay objects, such as roof furniture (eg finials or louvres), may be studied by pottery specialists and in such instances the Toolkit may be applicable. Other ceramic objects, such as loom-weights, bricks and tiles, are excluded from the Toolkit because they require different analytical approaches and are studied by different specialists.
Pottery assemblage: all the pottery collected during an archaeological project.
Pottery specialist: an individual who is competent in, and specialises in, characterising, quantifying, analysing, interpreting and reporting on pottery assemblages. A pottery specialist will have developed expertise through the extensive study of pottery, and reporting in reputable, peer reviewed sources, with a demonstrable ability to work unsupervised. Membership of a pottery study group is a valuable way of acquiring and sharing knowledge, while competence can be demonstrated through accreditation by CIfA. Both are recommended.
Pottery type series (PTS): a defined typology of ceramic types (fabrics and/or forms) that have been identified as being most common in a local or national setting.
Project brief: a document that sets out the scope, aims and rationale for an archaeological project, usually with the purpose of informing the development of a project design or written scheme of investigation.
Project design: the document that includes a description of the scope, aims, objectives, tasks, strategies and methods of a project, the personnel involved and the timetable. This document may be called something different depending on the jurisdiction of the work, eg written scheme of investigation (WSI), method statement, programme of works, etc.
Project executive: the person who instigates or commissions an archaeological project, often in either a planning role or through a funding agency, and who has a primary role in determining the aims and frame of reference.
Project manager: the person who manages the project and the project team.
Project team: the people who collectively work with the project manager throughout the course of the project, agreeing the project design and strategies for the completion of project tasks.
SGRP: Study Group for Roman Pottery – https://romanpotterystudy.org.uk/
Transfer of title: the means by which ownership of archaeological finds is passed onto another person or institution, usually a museum: applicable in England and Wales and centrally organised in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Type 1 Description: See Toolkit for Specialist Reporting
Type 2 Appraisal/Assessment: See Toolkit for Specialist Reporting
Type 3 Analysis: See Toolkit for Specialist Reporting
Vessel class: a broad term used to characterise the overall form of a pot; eg bowl, jar, jug.
Vessel type: a more specific way of classifying the overall form of a pot; eg carinated bowl, globular jar, pear-shaped jug.
Ware group: a group of ware types that has been assigned a collective name, such as high medieval glazed sandy ware.
Ware type: a type of pottery that is defined by a fabric or group of fabrics; eg Black-burnished ware or post-medieval redware.
Waster: a pot rejected after failure during firing (eg by melting, exploding, fragmenting).
Waster dump: a dump of pottery wasted in the kiln. These can comprise very large numbers of sherds, especially in industrial period contexts, leading to revised fieldwork strategies (see Historic England 2015).
