How to: date pottery

A red Roman samian ware bowl with a natural scene

How to: date pottery

Ever wanted to be an archaeologist? Or just wondered how to tell how old something is?

Just like clothing fashions have changed over time, so too have styles of pottery.

Learn the basics of pottery dating in this handy guide! (And no, we don't mean taking your teapot on a date...)

The Bronze Age (about 4,500 to 3,000 years ago)

Bronze Age pots were decorated by pushing materials like sticks and grass into the wet clay to create patterns

The clay was left its natural colour – usually light brown or beige

The pots were hardened in open fires. This sometimes left black marks on them from the changing temperatures.

A squat Bronze Age pot with a simple dotted design around the edges

A Bronze Age pot found in Ossett

This Bronze Age pot was found during an archaeological excavation at Ossett Sewage Works in 2007.

Other places where Bronze Age objects have been found in our area include:

Ferry Fryston
Stanley
Along the A638 in Wakefield, not far from the A1.

Our pot has a simple line decoration pressed into the clay. Some other Bronze Age pots were covered in more complex line and dot patterns.

Roman times (about 2,000 to 1,600 years ago)

Samian Ware was made in France and shipped to Britain. It is a popular type of ancient Roman pottery.

It is reddish-orange in colour.

It often has a raised pattern on the surface, made by pressing the wet clay into carved moulds.

The pots were dipped into slip (watered-down clay) before being heated in a kiln. This gave them a hard, glossy surface.

A samian ware bowl found in Castleford

The town of Castleford started out as a Roman army fortress called Lagentium. It later grew, with the addition of a civilian colony. It become an important centre for business, trade and craft.

Archaeologists have found thousands of pieces of samian ware buried in the ground in Castleford. This includes our bowl. This is evidence of how popular this style of pottery was in Roman times.

Medieval times (about 1,000 to 500 years ago)

The use of glaze, which gives pottery a shine, became quite common in medieval times.

Green glaze was popular. It was made by adding minerals like copper salts to the liquid glaze which the pots were dipped in before being heated in a kiln. The heat of the kiln brought out the green colour.

A small rounded medieval pot with the remnants of a dark green glaze

A medieval green-glazed chamber pot

Green glazed pottery items were used for many different things. These included cooking vessels, ale jugs, drinking goblets and even chamber pots - like ours here. They would have been a common sight around Pontefract Castle in the middle ages.

Victorian times (around 190 to 120 years ago)

In Victorian times blue and white glazed pottery became very popular.

It was often decorated with pictures or patterns that appealed to the Victorian sense of romance

The Willow Pattern told the story of an ancient Chinese princess and her quest for true love.

An ornate blue and white glazed plate with designs mimicking ancient Chinese pottery

A Willow Pattern plate made by William Gill and Sons, Castleford

In the Victorian period many different businesses thrived in the Castleford, Pontefract and Wakefield areas. There were glassmakers, sweet factories, engineering firms, coal mines, textile mills and potteries.

This Willow Pattern plate was made by William Gill and Sons. This was a pottery business that started up in Castleford in the late Victorian era.