Dan asked about cross mends etc. there are some mends and not all items were
burned uniformly so there are gradiants.
Many pieces were so birned almost black taht you could not see what was what
. But supprisingly some pieces were a dark dark dark blue (dark cobalt) but
you could read the ghosts of transfer printing and hand painted floral
decorations.
Body deformations or dynamics were primarily manifested in the spalling of
stoewares. The majority of these changes were in the lower/bottom portions
of containers. Early proposition is that fluids were in the vessels and
caused differential cooling/heating. Some sherds were split down the middle.
When I excavated a dormitory burned during the Civil War i had an Ironstone
(said so right on the back) plate that was all purple/blue but missing only
one large piece, Found the piece in the "white" pile. It had been under a
sash weight during the fire and sealed from reducing atmosphere.
Thanks guys
Jim Parker