archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a

historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

or prehistoric fragment of

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken pottery may be referred to as a

shard Shard or sherd is a sharp piece of glass, pottery or stone. Shard may also refer to: Places * Shard End, a place in Birmingham, United Kingdom Architecture * Dresden Shard, a redesign of the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germa ...

. While the spelling shard is generally reserved for referring to fragments of glass vessels, the term does not exclude pottery fragments. The etymology is connected with the idea of breakage, from Old English ''sceard'', related to Old Norse ''skarð'', "notch", and Middle High German ''schart'', "notch". A sherd or potsherd that has been used by having writing painted or inscribed on it can be more precisely referred to as an

ostracon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...

. The analysis of sherds is widely used by archaeologists to date sites and develop chronologies, due to their diagnostic characteristics and high resistance to natural, destructive processes. Some characteristics of sherds useful to archaeologists include temper, form, and glaze. These characteristics can be used to determine the kinds of resources and technologies used at the site. Potsherds discovered in Israel

Types

Archaeologists often classify sherds by the part of the ceramic vessel from which the sherd came. For example, sherds may be categorized as rim sherds, body sherds, and/or base sherds. Rim sherds are fragments of a vessel's rim, while base sherds are fragments of the vessel's base. Body sherds are fragments of ceramic that are not identified as rim sherds or base sherds. Other categories might include fragments of handles or lids. While all types of sherds carry valuable information, rim sherds and base sherds are especially informative because they allow archaeologists to determine the shape of the original object.

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Sherds
Pottery Sherds
Pottery Archaeological artefact types Egyptian artefact types

Types

References

Further reading

External links