The Swansea University Pottery Project: Part 1

This is the first of a two-part blog series on the Swansea University Pottery Project (SUPP) that describes its background, aims, methods, and future direction of the project. The second part will highlight some of the project’s research results to date. This post has been written by Christian Knoblauch, with input from Ken Griffin and Meg Gundlach.

 

Background
One strength of the Egypt Centre is its collection of ancient pottery, with over 1000 accessioned objects representing approximately 1/5 of the entire collection. The material spans the full extent of Egyptian history from prehistory to modern times, as well as important collections of Greek, Roman, and Sudanese material. Most of it has neither been studied nor adequately recorded. Due to limitations on space in the museum, only a small percentage is on display, meaning the public and researchers have never seen much of it (fig. 1). This is in fact a typical situation at many of the UK museums with extensive collections of Egyptian pottery. This material is often less well-studied than other types of artefacts, both due to the sheer quantity of the material and because the training and interests of many Egyptologists (or curators responsible for local collections) lie elsewhere. Most of this material entered private and public collections during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when British organisations such as the Egypt Exploration Fund/Society, the Egypt Research Account, and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt funded their excavations using subscriptions, for which the funders received objects from the excavation. As such, the objects are not only important in their own right but can often be linked to archaeological excavations and ancient contexts and are therefore indispensable data for studying the ancient past.

Fig. 1: The Pottery Case

Project aims

The aims of SUPP are to provide a complete, up-to-date record of each piece of pottery in the online collection catalogue so that this important material is fully accessible to all for free. At the same time, we want to promote student involvement in research, engage students in roles that enhance employability, and improve our learning community (fig. 2). The project is a collaboration between staff and students from the department of Heritage, History and Classics, the Egypt Centre, and the research group for Object and Landscape Approaches to the Past (OLCAP). The project is directed by Dr. Christian Knoblauch (specialist in Egyptian pottery and Lecturer in Egyptian Material Culture, Swansea University), Dr. Meg Gundlach (Collections Access Manager, The Egypt Centre), and Dr. Ken Griffin (Curator, The Egypt Centre).

Fig. 2: Members of the 2023 SUPP project

While staff direct the project, the actual task of getting these objects online is largely the work of a twelve student team selected through a competitive application process and who donate two hours each week to the project during semester time. Students receive full training in handling, recording, and describing museum objects. The students use these skills to record the objects, moving towards independent work as the semester progresses (fig. 3). Students who wish to remain with the project in the following semester can apply to do so and contribute towards training new volunteers; essentially, this is learning by doing and learning by teaching others. In total, we have provided over 100 hours of free (over 1000 accumulative student hours), extra-curricular professional-level skills training, which is roughly equivalent to an entire semester’s contact hours for a 1^st/2^nd Year Undergraduate student.

Fig. 3: Checking the fabric

Anyone familiar with online catalogues knows these are usually put together over a longer period by different people, resulting in inconsistency in language, descriptors, order, and numeric data. The aim of SUPP is to provide an accurate, internally consistent, and systematic record of the entire collection of pottery in the Egypt Centre. In each session, students work in pairs to record the objects, pooling knowledge and checking each other’s work as they go to ensure accuracy. SUPP employs strict guidelines for what measurements are recorded and how to take them, as well as standardised criteria for describing the shape, technology, surface treatment, decoration, and colour of the vessels (fig. 4). The use of drop-down menus for searchable fields such as object type, culture, date, material, provenance, and fabric further ensures consistency across the catalogue. The terminology and criteria used for SUPP are all based on systems employed by specialists in the field meaning the data can be seamlessly incorporated into our users’ own research. Of course, we pay great attention to any labels left on the pots by excavators, previous owners, and auction houses—one of the highlights of any session is reconnecting a pot with its original archaeological context. This information is also added to the pot’s record, meaning scholars can easily get an overview of what sites (and even what tombs) are represented in the collection (this will be discussed in more detail in Part 2 of this blog).

Fig. 4: Guidelines for SUPP

The student interns enter data and descriptions directly into the online collection catalogue (Abaset) and these are edited by a member of staff before saving (fig. 5). Once the students click “save”, their records become publicly available online. This is an exciting moment as there is no time lag between recording of the data and its availability for researchers worldwide and students rightly feel that they are contributing to global research. In an ideal world, each entry would be perfect before going online. However, perfection is the enemy of completion, so if the basic information (measurements/fabrics/date) is correct, we prefer to publish first and make amendments when we have time or the need arises. Abaset has a built-in function whereby researchers or the public working with the online catalogue can submit extra information or corrections for consideration by the editorial team. We hope our colleagues from across the world engage with this function (particularly with dates!) and build on the fantastic platform that the students of SUPP have laid down.

Fig. 5: SUPP students entering data in the online catalogue

The project has also benefited hugely from the completion of a totally new photographic record for each pot to accompany the entry in Abaset. The photography by Ken Griffin is done using strict guidelines, including neutral backgrounds and visible and consistent scales (fig. 6). Each vessel has images from different perspectives with close-up images of important features. Some of the more complex vessels also have 3D scans, although this can often be challenging to capture the interior of the vessels.

Fig. 6: Photography of HARGM3895

The student volunteers are the main asset of SUPP. They come from different degree schemes and range from second-year undergraduates in Classics, Ancient History, and Egyptology, to Public History and Heritage MAs and PhD students. The students have formed a unique, supportive, and positive learning community, making a huge contribution to knowledge about our collection and providing access to it for the public and researchers (while having a good time and a good chat). Most of them have no prior knowledge of pottery, Egyptian pottery (or even Egyptology in some cases), but it is inspiring to see how motivated and invested in the project they become. Participation in the project also has a direct impact on our student’s approach to their studies: one of our students, Katie Morton, recently completed an excellent BA Honours thesis on the wonderful Blue Painted Pottery from Amarna in the collection (fig. 7) whereas current SUPPian Jess Evans is writing her undergraduate thesis on pottery “imitations” of vessels in more expensive materials during the New Kingdom, inspired by some vessels she studied for SUPP.

Fig. 7: All hands on deck!

SUPP now and in the future

We have been running the project for two academic years and recently completed Phase I, which involved making the records of all complete vessels in the Egypt Centre (c. 400 vessels) as well as the Harrogate loan (80 vessels) available online. We are now entering Phase II, a detailed recording of the extensive collection of sherd material from the Egypt Exploration Society’s Armant 1936–37 excavations, including Badarian, A-Group, and Pan-Grave pottery. This requires training in new skills as we have so far only been working with complete vessels. Phase III of SUPP (2024–2026) is to complete technical drawings of each vessel and make these available online along with the photography (fig. 8). Once completed, Swansea’s collection will be the most comprehensively recorded and published Egyptian pottery collection in the UK.

Fig. 8: Learning new skills

Taking a broader perspective, it is hard to exaggerate the huge quantities and importance of Egyptian pottery in UK regional museums. A direct result of the modern history of the UK and the history of archaeology in Egypt, it is our responsibility not only to look after this incredibly important material but to make it accessible so it can be made use of. Once the Egypt Centre material has been finished, SUPP would welcome the opportunity to work with external partners to make other collections freely available, perhaps as SUPP Phase IV (fig. 9)?

Fig. 9: SUPP poster

Reactions from the current SUPP students

Jess Evans, 3rd Year Swansea University Student:
“Being part of the SUPP team is so much fun and I have learned a lot from encountering so many different types of pottery. One of the vessels we catalogued even inspired my dissertation!”

Rebecca Toghill, 3rd Year Swansea University Student:

“I have loved having the chance to experience history through material culture as this was the first time I have had the opportunity to do so. I think what has worked so well for me with this project is seeing the real-time impact our research and cataloguing have had for the Egypt Centre’s database as we are continuously adding to this vessel’s history. It has been fantastic learning new terminologies, skills, and being able to now have another perspective on what comprises history and how we can consume that for understanding.”

Molly Stanley, 3^rd Year Swansea University Student:

“It’s my third year doing the project now but one of my favourite things about the sessions is that I’m always learning new things. There are so many different types of objects and it’s so fun and informative to not just learn about their origins and how they might have been used but to also get the opportunity to handle them and contribute to research on the object that may have never been done before.”