Introduction
Alan Vince transformed the study of Saxon, medieval and early modern ceramics by applying geological and archaeological techniques. He examined the petrological composition of pots, comparing their constituents with rocks from known geological deposits. Working from microscope slides and later also with chemical analysis of the clay, he could deduce the geographical origin of the pot - sometimes even the precise kiln that had produced it centuries ago. Alan compared tens of thousands of potsherds, from dozens of sites, deploying statistical techniques to transform our understanding of conditions in English towns.
In 1999, Alan established his own archaeological consultancy after gaining extensive archaeological experience at Southampton University, the Department of Urban Archaeology of the Museum of London (1980-1988), the City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit (1988-1995) and the Department of Archaeology at the University of York (1995 - 1999).
Following the sad and untimely death of Dr. Vince in 2009, the Medieval Pottery Research Group, funded by English Heritage undertook a comprehensive audit of the Alan Vince Archaeological Consultancy archive and made recommendations for the future security of the important elements of it. Dr. Vince's widow agreed to transfer title and copyright to the final curators of all the archive elements finally distributed as part of this project. Elements of his important digital archive were transferred to the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). These include the unpublished reports of AVAC.
