The ceramic material from the Roman Iron Age settlement »Uttumer Escher« (Gde. Krummhörn, Lkr. Aurich) – typology and analysis of organically tempered pottery

Abstract

The analysis of pottery from the settlement Uttumer Escher is part of a DFG project which studies all riverside find complexes of the Roman Iron Age on the lower Weser and the lower Ems rivers in order to identify their possible function as wharves/piers. The pottery from Uttumer Escher stands out for their unusually high proportion of organically tempered ceramic ware reflecting a pottery variant, which is already known from other contemporary settlements astride the Ems. Typological comparisons and pottery analyses were conducted for a closer examination of this chronologically restricted and regional pottery tradition. They confirmed the already assumed peculiar manufacturing engineering. There is also frequent evidence for this pottery in the Dutch settlement area, although with different dating. A critical review of the basis of dating on the individual sites in both countries reveals that it could well be a contemporary phenomenon rendered possible by the necessity to add special temper to limey clay.