Hi all

I spend much of my life counting bits of pottery (sherd nos, wt, minimum 
vessels and EVEs depending on site and money) etc but don't pretend 
interpreting such figures is an exact science - its often very 
intuitive. After decades of experience you tend to be aware that certain 
pottery breaks into smaller or larger pieces and note that something 
different is going on when it is say over small. However, it is useful 
to know you have 20,00 thousand sherds of North Devon gravel tempered 
sherds as opposed to 2.  As i pointed out to a client and noticed that 
the two sherds of 13th-14th century AD pot in their 8th century Radio- 
carbon dated pit were 1g (and a notional one probably) and small enough 
to go down a worm hole they needn't have panicked. What we excavate 
anyone usually has little resemblance to what was used as examining 
exceptional sites shows those that are waterlogged, calacareous, or just 
have their middens in place or in the UK looking at the very different 
material metal detectorists find to what we seen on sites. Various 
people have worked on pot/ bone comparisons eg the late Alan Vince in UK 
but mostly there is no time for such stuff in commercial archaeology.

paul