Colby pot

Date made: Neolithic: 4000-2000 BC

Description: This 5000 year old pot is of a very distinctive local type. The fabric is coarse and the pot is tall with thick, straight sides. The round base indicates that it was never meant to stand up on its own, it was built to be buried. Decoration was made by pressing pointed tools or feather quills into the wet clay - this one has small marks all the way around the top. Some of these pots were originally painted with bright colours and many had stone lids, possibly attached by a cord under the rim.
Pots like this are sometimes found near cremated human remains. Scientific analysis has shown the remains of vegetable fat in some pots, so perhaps they held food for the dead. But they have also been found without human remains, sometimes in groups and sometimes on their own.

This pot was found whilst a drain was being dug in June 1935. It was carefully excavated and donated to the Manx Museum. It is one of the most complete pots of this type so far found, and the stone with it might have acted as a lid.

Materials: pottery

Date found: June 1935

Object name: pottery

Collection: Archaeology Collection

ID number: 1954-3517

Subject tags : #MM100BEAUTIFULTHINGS

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