Mortlake Bowl, Peterborough Impressed Ware

Details
Made by some of the first people to settle and farm in the British Isles.  Mortlake bowls like this would have been used by these Neolithic settlers to cook and store food.  The curved bottom allows the pot to sit comfortably in the embers of an open fire. 

Made in the Peterborough Impressed Ware style, this early form of decorative technique creates a distinctive, and, aesthetically pleasing vessel which is as beautiful to handle as it is to look at.  

This  Mortlake Bowl is based on examples excavated in the greater Stonehenge landscape, most notably at Wilsford Down, but this type of vessel is found in many areas of the UK. This is one of the earliest types of pottery to be made in Britain, dating back to 3500 BCE

Materials

Smoke fired Terracotta

Dimensions

Approx. 140 mm tall 215 mm diameter

This bowl has been made in a small batch and you may not receive this exact bowl photographed but any variations will be minimal. 

Firing

It has been fired to emulate the ancient firing conditions. The original pot would have been fired in an open wood fire, in close contact with the fuel, a process that leaves its mark on the clay as variations in the surface colour. However the very low temperatures achieved in open firings, also results in pots that are relatively weak, so this pot has been fired to a somewhat higher temperature to strengthen it, in a special firing process that allows me to achieve an authentic appearance to the pot.

Production

As with all my Museum Quality Replicas this pot has been made, as the original would have been,  entirely by hand from natural clay and using replicas of the types of tool that the Neolithic makers would have used.  In keeping with the original pot, the decoration has been applied using a bone.

Health and Safety

This is a Museum Quality Replica made using the tools and techniques that would have been used during the Neolithic era.  As this is an unglazed pot with a porous surface it will absorb some of the flavours during the cooking process, which does add to the flavour of future dishes. However, it does also mean that this pot does not meet modern Health and Safety standards and therefore we do not advise that it is used for cooking with.  When Neolithic cooks cooked in these pots they would rely on applying sufficient heat to the pot and contents to ensure that all bacteria was killed. Heating to over 70°C for at least 10 minutes would have killed most disease causing bacteria and temperatures of 100°C would do even more.

Postage
All items are sent using a second class postal service, if you wish to have an item sent first class please contact my for a quote. Many Thanks