PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 121 
clay following the recommended guidelines for 
analysing prehistoric pottery (PCRG 1992). 
Further subdivision was made on the size and 
frequency of the aplastic inclusions. The sherds 
were quantified by sherd count and weight for each 
excavated context. The resulting data was entered 
onto an Excel spreadsheet, a copy of which is 
deposited with the site archive. Fabrics were 
assigned to periods mainly on the basis of the 
occurrence of diagnostic sherds or by the 
association of fabrics where such sherds were 
absent or inconclusive. 
Middle Bronze Age 
A total of 963 sherds can be assigned to the middle 
Bronze Age Deverel-Rimbury tradition. The 
greatest concentration of sherds came from the 
northern enclosure ditch (783), 522 sherds (6615 g), 
although over 75% of these came from just two 
urns. The eastern enclosure ditch (784) produced 
78 sherds (394 g), whilst the waterhole (421) yielded 
154 sherds (1572 g). 
Description of fabrics and associated forms 
SHELLI1: Dense fossil shell-tempered ware. A 
generally reddish-orange to brown exterior with a 
dark grey black interior and core. The paste 
contains a common frequency of fossil shell mainly 
aligned to the vessel walls and up to 5 mm in size. 
The shell has a clean, fresh appearance, quite white 
in colour. At x20 magnification a rare frequency of 
limestone ooliths and other fossiliferous detritus 
(coral, foraminifera) is visible. 
This is the commonest of the middle Bronze 
Age fabrics with at least 322 sherds (1338 g). 
Amongst the sherds are both thick-walled urn-like 
material (10 mm), medium walled sherds (7-10 
mm) and thinner-walled sherds (6 mm and less). 
Featured sherds include those from bucket-shaped 
urns with expanded rims, either plain (Fig. 16.5) or 
externally slashed (Fig. 17.14), a smaller jar or urn 
| 
with a finger groove below a flat-topped expanded 
rim (Fig. 16.3) and an everted rim jar with internal 
finger tipping (Fig. 17.15). A bodysherd from 
_ waterhole 421 has diagonal slashed decoration (Fig. 
17.11). A simple jar rim from waterhole 421 has 
| finger-tipped decoration on the exterior, whilst a 
carinated bodysherd from the same context has 
finger-tip depressions below the carination. One 
rimsherd from (367) appears to belong to a vessel 
| with splayed walls (Fig 16.7). 
This ware was distributed across a_ large 
number of features with the main concentrations 
coming from the waterhole, 421, which produced 
48 sherds, the terminal of the eastern enclosure 
ditch, 321, with 26 sherds, the northern enclosure 
ditch, sections 383 and 412, yielded 68 sherds, pit 
369 contained 61 thin-walled sherds and pit 688 
produced 21 sherds. It is associated with fabrics 
GRSH, SHELL2-3, and FLINT. 
SHELL2: Shell and limestone-tempered ware. 
A black fabric with a sandy texture, but very friable. 
The paste contains a common frequency of fossil 
shell mixed with discrete ooliths and other 
fossiliferous matter. These are more frequent in 
occurrence compared to SHELL1. Occasional shell 
fragments up to 8 mm in size but mainly finer. 
Vessels include a plain-watied jar with a slightly 
internally bevelled rim (Fig. 17.10) and a large 
curved wall jar with a line of finger-tipped 
impression below the rim (16.6). Not a common 
fabric with only 26 sherds recorded from just three 
contexts, two from the eastern enclosure ditch (366 
and 450) and waterhole 421. It is associated with 
fabrics SHELL1, GROG, GRSH and SHELL 3. 
SHELL3: Fossil-shell tempered ware. A 
moderately thick-walled ware with an orange 
exterior and outer core and black interior and inner 
core. The paste contains a sparse to moderate 
frequency of fine fossil shell up to 1 mm in size 
mixed in with occasional bryozoa and occasional 
discrete limestone ooliths. A moderately rare fabric 
represented by just nine unfeatured sherds from the 
eastern enclosure ditch (784). 
SHELL6: shelly ware. An orange-brown ware 
with a dark grey core. Moderately hard fabric with 
occasional voids and a sparse frequency of coarse 
fossil shell up to 8mm across. The ware has a 
laminar, hackley fracture. A total of 24 unfeatured 
sherds were recovered from the northern enclosure 
ditch (783) suggesting this is a middle Bronze Age 
fabric. 
GROG: Grog-tempered ware. A moderately 
hard, orange-brown ware with a black interior 
surface and inner core. The slightly sandy textured 
paste contains a common frequency of sub-angular 
grog, up to 7 mm in size. At x20 magnification the 
matrix contains very fine sand and fine mica. 
Vessels include at least two bucket-shaped urns 
with expanded rims from the northern enclosure 
ditch, 783, and waterhole 421. The urn from 421, 
represented by at least 85 sherds, has finger-pressed 
decoration on the outer rim edge and a finger- 
pressed cordon around the body. In addition, the 
waterhole produced two decorated bodysherds, one 
with a vertical applied rib, the other with two 
