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4.0 Results

Three fabrics were identified. The first of these (Fabric 1) consists of a brown calcareous clay with common to abundant, well-sorted angular to subangular silt/very fine sand, composed mainly of quartz, but with minor feldspar and amphibole. Sparse to common subrounded grains of micritic limestone up to 1.0mm in diameter are also present (see Figure 4). In some of the samples there are rare fragments of shell and occasional elongate voids, probably indicating the original presence of vegetal material. Several sherds contained fragments of calcite-cemented sand grains ('kurkar'), and one included sparse medium sand-grade material (mainly quartz) and somewhat less silty material in its fabric. These minor differences are thought to be fortuitous, reflecting local variations in the source clay.

The second fabric (Fabric 2) consists of a very similar calcareous silty clay, again with subrounded grains of micritic limestone up to about 1.0mm in diameter and occasional voids after vegetal material. This fabric is distinguished, however, by the presence of sparse to common fragments of shell, up to 2.5mm in length, often with distinctive, well-rounded ends (Figure 5). Fragments of rounded and polished shell can be seen with the naked eye in the lump of unfired clay from the workshop (Figure 6), and examination of the laboratory-fired sample in thin section revealed it to be very similar to Fabric 2 (Figure 7).

The last fabric (Fabric 3) consists of a brown calcareous clay matrix with common to abundant well-sorted rhombic inclusions of dolomite, typically c. 0.2mm across (Figure 8).


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