Souterrain ware related

[oleg]

Hi,


There is a very nice post on Souterrain ware in Brian Dolan's blog regarding UCD experiments.
http://www.seandalaiocht.com/1/post/201 ... art-1.html

There are some questions about the pottery and clay in Ireland, may be someone of you could help me out.

I read from articles that the colors are buff to some shades of brown. Pics from blog show clay of similar color in pit.
However some other images contain different types of clay -
http://www.seandalaiocht.com/uploads/1/ ... 9_orig.jpg - dark grey with big white inclusions. What is the inclusion? Is is natural in clay or artificial? What is the source of the clay - locally dug or commercial?
http://www.seandalaiocht.com/uploads/1/ ... 2_orig.jpg - these looks like made from commercial "ball" clay, but not sure.
http://www.seandalaiocht.com/uploads/1/ ... 9_orig.jpg - shows at least 3 different clays

Is it true that clay can't be found in the majority of Ireland territory except north-east? What was the source for late medieval pottery? The same region or the clay can be found in smaller amounts almost everywhere?