Whole Vessels and Sherds: an Experimental Investigation of Their Quantitative Relationships

AbstractPast studies of the quantitative relationships between sherds and the whole vessels from which they are derived have remained theoretical because the data used were from archaeological contexts where only information from sherds was available. By recording data from a set of whole vessels, breaking them, and then recording data from the resulting sherds, it was possible to determine which measures of sherd quantity may be used to estimate given measures of vessel quantity.