What’s in a name? A brief history of British Neolithic pottery nomenclature and some reflections on its legacy (The archaeological project: Reflections on practice, interpretation and historiography)

This contribution is offered with affection, gratitude and admiration to Chris as an archaeologist, polymath and friend, who is unfailingly stimulating and who has done so much, over several decades, to transform our understanding of East Anglian prehistory and to improve the practice of archaeology. Describing and discussing Neolithic (and indeed other prehistoric) pottery in Britain is one area of archaeological practice that could certainly do with some improvement, given the current variability and inadequacy of the terminology used and the inconsistency in its application. The naming of pottery is not a neutral matter: descriptive terms – especially those named after supposed ‘type sites’ – come with considerable interpretative baggage. The need to identify and address the various issues is all the more pressing since there is a danger of a serious skills gap opening up as the present generation of ceramic specialists gets older and is, by and large, not being replaced by a sizeable cohort of knowledgeable younger specialists.