Conference Video – Recap, Updates, and Results! (Finally)

Hi All,

The video above is footage of the talk I gave to the ‘Pottery in Archaeology’ conference at Doncaster Museum last month. I discuss the principles of the project, progress so far, results to date, and plans for the future.

Apologies for the flickering effect in a lot of the slides, it’s caused by a quirk of my editing software. If it’s too distracting for some then please let me know and I will fix the problem and re-upload this video. I would also recommend subtitles as the audio quality isn’t brilliant.

If you can’t sit and watch through it all, don’t worry, I’ll be posting the results on this blog in the next few days – hopefully in an easier format.

Thanks!

– Tom

GCA Project at Doncaster Conference on May 12th

 

Hi All,

Just to let you know I will be presenting the outline, progress, and current results of the project to the ‘Pottery in Archaeology’ conference in Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery on the 12th of May at 2:45pm. This will be part of a discussion looking at recent discoveries and developments in archaeological ceramics from across Northern England, starting at 10:30am and finishing at 3:30pm, with an hour’s break at 12:30pm.

Please come along if you think you’d be interested! Attendance is free and I’m going to try and make my talk as interesting as possible. Though if you don’t feel like attending or are reading this after the fact, I will try and make a video showing the results as soon as I can.

Thanks all!

– Tom

First Phase Report now available

A report detailing the construction of the light chamber as well as some preliminary results has now been submitted to York Archaeological Trust, and is now available to view at their Resilience page: https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GCA-Project-Phase-1.pdf

The page itself has also been updated: https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/resources/finding-the-future/resilience-year-2-3/fragments-of-colour/

– Tom

Video – Making the Light Chamber

Hi all,

I finally managed to get the ‘making of’ video finished for the light chamber, it wasn’t nearly as much of a pain to make as the light chamber itself, as the video should demonstrate.

I’ll have results for the functionality tests on the blog soon! In the meantime if you have any questions about the light chamber or the process of making it then please comment below!

Thanks,

– Tom

Completed Light Chamber Photos

The light chamber is now officially complete and functional! The photographs above were taken during a test I was running earlier this week to establish the best method in which to present consistent, scaled photographs that would not vary based on the colour and size of the target sherd. The results are still being processed, but while they are I am currently testing to ensure that no external light is entering the chamber during the recording process, making it ‘watertight’ if you will.

The videos I’m making are coming, I promise. I am having to prioritise testing at the moment but next week I will focus on presenting some results for the blog, as well as trying to get this video finished.

Thanks all!

– Tom

Test Samples Poster

Hey all, I’ve been working on a poster to easily (hopefully) display data about the samples I’m using for the testing phase of this project. Please comment below if I’m unclear on anything (which I’m certain I have been somewhere) or if you have any questions.

Apologies if the formatting of the blog makes the image difficult to see, you can download the full image at the link below:

Test Samples Poster

I’ve uploaded a black and white version at the link below for anyone whom is red-green colourblind or otherwise.

Test Samples – B&W

Thanks!

– Tom

Video Update

Just a quick(ish) update to fill you in on how the project’s been progressing over the last few weeks, where we are now, and what’s coming up in the near future.

If I’m not coherent enough then please let me know and I’ll try and write a text-based update that’s a bit more comprehensive.

Also, if in the future you would like me to produce shorter, more frequent updates then please let me know in the comments below!

Thanks all,

– Tom

Project Update

Apologies that this is the first update in a month, as I’m working up in Scotland the snow has delayed the progress of the project a little bit. However, when the weather allows I’ve been working flat out to get the light chamber constructed.

The photo above represents the state that the box was in this morning. I’ve been out in the rain chiselling, filing, and sanding all day to make sure it all fits together. A quirk in the method I used to construct the panels is that very few of the corners are squared off, and I had to drill holes in the panels to secure the wood as it was being carved with the machine, which I’ve also filled in today.

I’ve altered the design slightly to allow for more adjustments for the view frame, so we now have ten niches rather than four. I’ve also added a regulator into the design to ensure that the light in the interior doesn’t fade as the batteries die. Lastly, the position of the LED lights have changed, now being situated around the hole for the camera to reduce the number of shadows that might affect the RGB reading.

I am lacking on the electronic engineering front, so an engineer will be brought in early next week to wire everything up. Once everything is complete we can start finally gathering data!

I’m also working on another video showing the process of making the chamber over the last month, so look forward to that over the next couple of weeks.

Thank you to Lorna Coyne and Rob Jackson at Dundee University for helping get the light chamber to this stage!

 

– Tom

Working Project Bibliography

Hi all!

We’re had at work getting our light chamber produced, but to fill the gap this week I thought I’d share the reading list we’ve been working with as part of the project’s background research.

Some of the books and articles listed below focus on the analysis of archaeological pottery more generally, but are must-reads for any aspiring ceramicist. The others discuss previous projects and research looking into ceramic glaze composition that have helped us formulate our approach to this project.

Please look them up if you think you’ll find them interesting! Also, if you feel our list is incomplete and would like to recommend something please comment below!

Thanks!

– Tom

 

Cumberpatch, C., 1997. ‘Towards a phenomenological approach to the study of medieval pottery’, in Cumberpatch, C. and Blinkhorn, P. (eds), 1997. Not so Much a Pot, More a Way of Life. Oxbow Monograph 83. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.125-152.

 

Cumberpatch, C., 2003. The origins of the post-medieval ceramic tradition in Yorkshire. [online] Available at: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/assemblage/html/7/cumberpatch.html [Accessed: 15/02/2018].

 

Jennings, S., 1992. Medieval Pottery in the Yorkshire Museum. Yorkshire Museum

 

Jervis, B., 2014. Pottery and Social Life in Medieval England. Oxbow Books.

 

Mainman, A. and Jenner, M.A, 2013. The Archaeology of York: The Pottery. Medieval Pottery From York. Council for British Archaeology.

 

McCarthy, M.R. and Brooks, C.M., 1988. Medieval pottery in Britain, AD 900-1600. Leicester University Press.

 

Molera, J., Vendrell‐Saz, M., García‐Vallés, M., and Pradell, T., 1997. Technology and Colour Development of Hispano‐Moresque Lead‐Glazed Pottery. Archaeometry, 39(1), pp.23-39.

 

Orton, C., Tyers, P. and Vince, A., 1993. Pottery in archaeology. Cambridge manuals in archaeology.

 

Pérez-Arantegui, J., Larrea, A., Molera, J., Pradell, T. and Vendrell-Saz, M., 2004. Some aspects of the characterization of decorations on ceramic glazes. Applied Physics A, 79(2), pp.235-239.

 

Rice, P.M., 1987. Pottery analysis: a sourcebook. University of Chicago Press.

 

Tite, M.S., Freestone, I.C., Mason, R., Molera, J., Vendrell-Saz, M. and Wood, N., 1998. Lead glazes in antiquity – methods of production and reasons for use. Archaeometry, 40(2), pp.241-260.

The GCA Project has been featured in YAT’s Resilience Projects Website!

York Archaeological Trust’s Resilience scheme funds research projects that will benefit archaeology as a discipline, promoting the accessibility of archaeological material both physically and online, encouraging cross-departmental collaboration, and “Sharing best practice within the sector, and externally, through mentoring and providing easy access to our knowledge and skills”. The staff behind the GCA Project hope our venture embodies these aims, and we will strive to achieve them. If you would like to know more about YAT’s Resilience scheme and the projects they promote please visit:

Year 2 Projects: https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/resources/finding-the-future/resilience-year-2-3/

GCA Project (Fragments of Colour): https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/resources/finding-the-future/resilience-year-2-3/fragments-of-colour/

– Tom

Light Chamber Designs

Just to keep you updated, the work over the past week has been focussed on producing the light chamber. Once this is manufactured and tested, the next stage will using it to photograph and record the RGB codes of in-context sherd samples from archaeological archives. The attached images are 3D models designed as a guide to its construction, which I thought I’d share. If you have any thoughts or comments then please let me know!

– Tom

Loaded sherd sample

Closing chamber

Closed chamber

Top view (closed)

View through camera niche

Interior of main chamber

Exterior of main chamber

Oblique view of sample holder with view frames

Side view of sample holder with view frames

Introduction

As an archaeologist or ceramicist, imagine you have just been presented with a fragment of glazed pot that would be crucial to the interpretation or dating of an associated find or feature. However, in this instance you are uncertain or unfamiliar with this particular pottery type, or perhaps opinions are split among your colleagues.

Now imagine that you are handed a device that can tell you objectively not only the pottery type, but its distribution, dates, and known production sites, as well as any relevant research associated with that pottery type; allowing you to gain crucial context for your find or feature.

This is what the Glaze Colour Analysis (GCA) Project hopes to achieve. Using a relatively simple process related to modern digital photography, combined with a few statistical models, we believe that this could present a viable solution to a relatively common problem in archaeology.

This project will involve the collection of images to build up a digital code-based pottery reference collection, to which unknown sherds can be compared and matched with their closest counterparts. Once this process has been thoroughly tested, the next stage will be to synthesise a device that can do all of this instantly.

Welcome to the GCA Project!

My name is Tom Watson, and I am an archaeologist and pottery researcher.

I just wanted to give you a bit of background on what this project is and how it came about.

I came up with the idea behind this project when I was writing my master’s dissertation a couple of years ago. With help from a relatively simple technique involving observation of the RGB code behind the images of two pottery glazes, I was able to prove objectively that a dark glazed pottery type and an overfired sherd of a different pottery type were distinct from each other. I subsequently wondered whether this could be applied to a wider sample, and have brainstormed some potentially useful applications for archaeology if this can be tested.

The fantastic people at York Archaeological Trust (YAT) have given me the opportunity to explore these ideas, as well as the means to test them.

I’ll provide more details on this blog as the project progresses, but in brief, we will be expanding on the technique used in my dissertation by producing an extensive database of RGB colour codes from the glazes of known pottery types, using sherds kindly provided by museums in Yorkshire, as well as YAT’s in-house stores. A sherd of an unknown pottery type to the observer can then have its own RGB code compared with this database, and (in theory), a match can be found, allowing the pottery type to be identified accurately and objectively by a non-expert.

For anyone understandably scratching their head as to why this might be useful, archaeologists are always looking for ways to accurately date objects or features they find. Glazed pottery is a relatively common find, as it has been produced in large quantities and distributed widely in Britain for around a millennium. This means that if a pottery sherd can be identified to a good degree of certainty, it can produce the much needed dates that archaeologists can then use to give context to objects or features that the sherd was associated with (i.e. sherd from 1450-1500CE found in box, ergo box wasn’t buried before 1450CE).

The diagram above was the first mock-up I drew some time ago for a device that might allow RGB codes to be collected from pottery non-intrusively, and with a standardised light level. The design will inevitably change substantially when it becomes time to produce such a device, but I think it demonstrates the principle.

If all goes to plan I will have a video produced in the next few days illustrating the concept more clearly, but for now if you have any questions then please contact me on my email address (Tom866@live.co.uk) or in the comments section.

Thank you!

Tom