on 15/5/03 5:30 am, Charpentier, Roberta at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> If these are lids then where are the sherds for the containers that the lids
> went on?  I have a couple of feather edge creamware plates, a creamware
> creamer, and three of these "lids".  We have not finished the MVC yet but
> I'm not seeing any hollowware sherds.


While I haven't looked at the vessels in question, this is hardly an
insurmountable problem.  Many of the assemblages I've worked with in the
past (whether in the US, UK, or Aus) have had a small number of lids that
can't be specifically ascribed to other vessels.  That's just archaeology
for you.  Assuming they are lids, I'd suggest that your main issue at this
stage is deciding whether or not the presence of unaccompanied lids is
enough evidence to include the potentially associated hollow vessels in the
MVC.

What are the vessel contexts?  The absence of accompanying hollow vessels
for the lids is going to far less of a 'problem' with a surface or
ploughzone scatter of highly fragmentary vessels than with a series of
sealed contexts containing largely complete vessels.

Alasdair Brooks




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Alasdair Brooks
Department of Archaeology
La Trobe University
Plenty Road
Bundoora VIC 3083
Australia
Phone - 03 9479 3269
E-mail - [log in to unmask]
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"The buffalo tastes the same
on both sides of the border"
Sitting Bull