27867
Author
Allen, J.R.L.
Author Affiliation
University of Reading. Postgraduate Research Institute for Sedimentology
Title Of Article Chaper
A quantitative technique for assessing the roundness of pottery sherds in water currents
Title Of Journal Book
Geoarchaeology
Volume
4
Issue
2
Pages
143-155
Collation
3 figs.
Reference Bibliography
refs.
ISSN
0883-6353
Language Of Text
English
Language Of Summary
English
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
The shape property of transposed pottery sherds that changes most rapidly due to wear during water transport in natural sedimentary environments is roundness, the degree of curvature of edges and corners. Of the many methods for the measurement of particle roundness, which are briefly reviewed, that proposed by Wadell (1932, 1933) is considered to specify roundness best. A simple and rapid procedure for the measurement of the Wadell projection roundness is described, which yields roundness values having a precision of the order of a few percent, the precision improving with the degree of roundness. The technique is therefore suitable for the analysis of large samples of transposed and transported sherds.
Keywords
sherds;ceramics;shape;roundness;measurement;precision
pub_id
27867