SGRP home page
Hand specimen picture panel
Thin section picture panel
Appendix 1: Keywords and Definitions
Appendix 2: Physical Layout of Sherds Housed in the NRFRC
The following lists vocabulary used in the text that requires explanation.
| Colour | |
| Buff | Very pale brown |
| Cream | Very pale yellow |
| Hardness | |
| Hard | Scratched with penknife |
| Soft | Scratched with fingernail |
| Very hard | Not scratched with penknife |
| Surface Feel | |
| Harsh | Feels abrasive to the touch |
| Powdery | Powdery |
| Rough | Irregularities can be felt |
| Smooth | No irregularities can be felt |
| Soapy | Soapy |
| Fresh Fracture | |
| Conchoidal | Breaks as flint/glass |
| Finely Irregular | Small, closely-spaced irregularities |
| Hackly | More widely-spaced irregularities |
| Laminated | Stepped effect |
| Smooth | Flat or slightly curved, no visible irregularities |
| Inclusions | |
| Accessory minerals | Black, glassy, frequently angular |
| Argillaceous rocks | Clay pellets and clay-rich inclusions |
| Clay pellets | Always naturally occurring |
| Frequency | |
| Frequency has been defined after Fitzpatrick 1984, and is illustrated on Figure 2. | |
| Sparse | 0-4% inclusions |
| Common | 5-19% |
| Abundant | 20.00% |
| Rounding | |
| Rounding parameters follow those defined by Pettijohn et al 1972 and illustrated on Fig 3, although simplified into three groupings: | |
| Angular | |
| Rounded | |
| Sub-rounded | |
FitzPatrick, E A, 1984 Micromorphology of soils
Pettijohn, F J, Potter, P E & Siever, R, 1972 Sand and sandstone, New York