The Insight from Innovation conference, held in honour of David Peacock, provided an opportunity for representatives of the three main pottery groups (SGRP, PCRG and MPRG) to collaborate on a joint paper in honour of David Peacock. The paper reflected on Peacock’s contribution to pottery studies and reviewed some strengths and weaknesses of current practice. This collaboration was itself a significant innovation, for, although sharing many of the same interests, methods and concerns, the three period groups have typically functioned in isolation.
The principal objectives of the published paper were to emphasise shared ambitions and methodologies and to advocate the case for a joint guidance document that would press for appropriate standards of analysis to be maintained, and for innovation to be fostered, in the face of increasing commercial pressures. The collaboration forged between the three groups, while working on this paper, resulted in the production of the joint pottery standards, which have now been published.
The paper, ‘Hold your beliefs lightly’: Innovation and best practice in Prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman ceramic studies in Britain, by Jane Evans, Duncan Brown and David Knight, can be downloaded here.
Insight from Innovation: New Light on Archaeological Ceramics, edited by Emilie Sibbesson, Ben Jervis and Sarah Coxon, is published by Oxbow Books. Click here for more details.