©
Fabulous Finds
YAC Factsheet – Drawing Pottery: A step-by-step guide
The Young Archaeologists’ Club is part of the Council for British Archaeology. www.britarch.ac.uk/yac ~ yac@britarch.ac.uk ~ St Mary’s House, 66 Bootham, York YO30 7BZ ~ 01904 671417
How to use this factsheet:
If you have a sherd of pottery from the rim or base of a pot, it is possible to begin reconstructing
it. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to try the technique used by archaeologists! You can
also use this technique for drawing complete pots.
Instructions Picture How your drawing
will look at each step
1. Move the rim part of the pot along the
lines of the rim chart until the curve of
the rim fits onto one of the lines. Read
across this line and it will tell you how
big the diameter of your pot would have
been/is. If you are drawing your pot ‘life-
size’, draw a horizontal line on your
page that is exactly this length. If you
Use the rim charts on the
are working to a scale, make sure that
YAC website to work out
your line is the correct length for the the diameter of your pot!
scale you are drawing at. For example,
if your pot has a diameter of 50cm and
you are working at a scale of 1:2, your
line should be 25cm long.
Mark where half way is on this line.
2. Measure how tall your pot is; remember
when taking your measurement that 0cm
must be against the edge of the bottom
of the pot! Draw a vertical line this
length (or your scale’s equivalent) from
the half way mark you made on your
horizontal line; you should now have a
T-shape that shows your pot’s diameter
and height.
3. Measure the base of your pot on the rim
chart, draw a horizontal line this length
(or your scale's equivalent) at the bottom
of your vertical line.
4. On the left-hand side carefully draw the
outline silhouette of your pot.
©
Fabulous Finds
YAC Factsheet – Drawing Pottery: A step-by-step guide (continued)
The Young Archaeologists’ Club is part of the Council for British Archaeology. www.britarch.ac.uk/yac ~ yac@britarch.ac.uk ~ St Mary’s House, 66 Bootham, York YO30 7BZ ~ 01904 671417
Instructions Picture How your drawing
will look at each step
5. On the right-hand side carefully draw the
same outline silhouette.
6. Measure how thick your pot is; you may
only be able to do this at the rim with a
ruler and have to guess how thick it is all
the way through! On the left-hand side
of your drawing, draw another line inside
the first one showing the exact thickness
of your pot. If you are using a scale,
remember that this must be at the same
scale as the rest of your drawing! Shade
the space between the lines in black.
7. On the right-hand side of your pot do a
line drawing of any decoration that your
pot has. You can show any details such
as the texture of the pot by using
‘stippling’, these are small dots made
with the tip of your pencil, or show the
outline of any big 'bits', such as shell, in
the surface of the pot.
8. At the bottom of your sheet remember to
include the scale you have used, the
date you did the drawing, and your
name and age.
You can use the scale bars on the YAC
factsheet on your drawing. Make sure
you choose the right scale bar!
12/12/2007: Nicky, Age 10
9. If your pot (plate or bowl) has decoration
on the ‘inside’ or ‘top’ surface you should
draw a black and white plan view of this
decoration on a separate piece of paper.
Remember to include a scale, the date
and your name and age on this too!
Remember all drawings should be black and white and
patterns or details should be clear and easy to understand
