Variably textured (rough through to soapy) and variably fired (hard through to soft) with a fine textured clay matrix. Tempering includes sub-rectangular quartz grains up to 0.6mm in size together with small fragments of limestone, fossil shell, iron ore, a little calcite and some largish pieces of grog containing small pieces of limestone. The rather wide range of inclusions can make this difficult to distinguish from fabrics 5.3 and 5.9, but this fabric contains limestone and/or fossil shell and does not contain small pieces of quartz sandstone
Variable from weak red (2.5YR 4/2) to dark grey (5YR 4/1) throughout
Manufacture
Hand-made
Decoration
Limited to fine surface wiping. A possible equivalent fabric at Longmore Hill Farm (Harrison 1992) included parallel rows of stick impressions
Local to site, WORCESTERSHIRE/HEREFORDSHIRE
Distribution of this fabric is currently limited to two sites in the south of the county and possibly a third to the north of Worcester. At Huntsman's Quarry, Kemerton this fabric was associated with a small assemblage of Grooved Ware including a tapered rim from a globular vessel. The same site also included plain Beaker vessels in this fabric with simple base angles and an everted simple rim represented. At Aston Mill Quarry, Kemerton a similar fabric was also recorded and was associated a vessel of Middle Bronze Age date. Fabric 2/3 at Longmore Hill Farm, Astley may equate to this fabric and was again associated with Beaker vessels.
Neolithic to Bronze Age (c.2700 BC to 1000 BC)
The earliest dating of vessels associated with this fabric is that of the Late Neolithic Grooved Ware from Huntsman's Quarry. The Beaker assemblage from the latter site also included this fabric as potentially does that from Longmore Hill Farm. These can be dated to the second and third quarters and possibly into the fourth quarter of the 3rd millenium BC. Lastly, the fabric has been associated with a flat topped rim and a carinated body sherd from a biconical vessel of Middle Bronze Age date at Aston Mill. The variable nature of the inclusions and the presence of grog typify vessels of Late Neolithic and Early to Middle Bronze Age date