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Preservation Virginia > Jamestown Rediscovery > Exhibit > Jamestown Fort: Rediscovered > The Things > Ceramics > Border Ware Double Walled Dish

Border Ware Double Walled Dish, ca. 1600-1610

Border Ware Double Walled Dish This green-glazed Border ware double dish was excavated from Pit 3, which has a fill date of ca. 1610. It consists of two deep straight-sided compartments. The base of the smaller front compartment is pierced with a line of four holes, each 6 mm in diameter. This piercing, along with the lower profile of the secondary dish, suggests that perhaps some substance was to spill out of the larger bowl and drain through the smaller. The vessel is glazed only on the interior of the large compartment and over the exterior rim cordoning of both sections.

Although unique in America, the double dish form is known through at least twenty-two vessels that have been excavated in England from late 16th and early 17th-century contexts. Suggested uses have ranged from a flowerpot to a container for ecclesiastical Holy Water. More recent speculation has considered candle or soap making. None of these explanations is entirely satisfying as evidenced by the recently released glossary of ceramic forms by the Medieval Pottery Research Group, which documents the form as "a rare ceramic form, presumably with a specific function which remains unknown."




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