Huntcliff ware or more correctly 'Huntcliff-type', is a type of
Romano-British ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
.
Use of the term 'Huntcliff ware' is contentious because it suggests the pottery was manufactured at the Roman signal station on the east coast of Yorkshire. No
kilns have been found for the calcite-gritted ware industry but an East Yorkshire source is suspected on distribution patterns, possibly in the
Vale of Pickering
The Vale of Pickering is a low-lying flat area of land in North Yorkshire, England. It is drained by the River Derwent. The landscape is rural with scattered villages and small market towns. It has been inhabited continuously from the Mesolithic ...
.The term Huntcliff-type refers to the report in which this jar was first recognised as a type.
Industry
It is a distinctive variety of calcite-gritted ware jar with a curved, everted rim with lid-seated groove, made in
East Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to th ...
from around AD 360 to the 5th century AD.
Fabric
This fabric may be dark grey, dark brown or more usually black. It is hard with a hackly fracture and harsh feel. The external surfaces are usually smoothed and knife trimmed near the base. A series of poorly executed parallel grooves on the shoulder are characteristic.
It is heavily tempered with crushed
calcite
Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
. The jar forms have handmade bodies and the rim finished on a
potter's wheel
In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, a ...
.
Notes
Romano-British pottery
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