Food vessel
Description
Biconical pottery food vessel with four unperforated lugs/stops and comb-impressed herringbone and linear decoration.
About this object
Bronze Age food vessel from Hay Top barrow, Derbyshire. This pot is highly decorated on the sides and rim. Most of the decoration is zigzag lines, usually called herringbone decoration. Some lines were made with twisted cord, and the shape of the cord can be seen. Other lines were made using points of bone or wood.
Bronze Age potters liked to decorate their pots. The patterns used in decoration may have had various meanings. They may indicate the work of a particular potter or symbolise a particular community or family.
Archaeologists do not know if food vessels were used in the home. They could have been made specifically for burials, which may be why they are so highly decorated.
Thomas Bateman excavated Hay Top barrow and found this vessel, along with lots of other objects, in 1851.
