When Did Pots Become Domestic? Special Pots and Everyday Pots in British Prehistory

This wide-ranging review considers the social roles of pottery vessels in prehistoric Britain from the beginning of the Neolithic through to the Middle Iron Age – a period of four millennia. The results of recent research, particularly that involving the consideration of vessel capacities and contextualisation, are woven together in order to substantiate a novel and provocative hypothesis, that prior to the Middle Iron Age, most pots were made and used for the consumption of food, drink and hallucinogenic substances in the context of communal gatherings and feasting. It was only from the Middle Iron Age onwards that larger assemblages of ceramics included a wide range of everyday cooking and eating vessels.