The pottery at Psalmodi is being quantified using a variety of measures, including sherd count, sherd weight, and rim arc proportion. Although minimum number of vessels is widely used in southern France as a measure, it is unsuitable for this assemblage due to various postdepositional processes that will often have caused different parts of the same vessel to end up in separate groups that cannot be correlated stratigraphically.
This work has been undertaken in small increments amid other work since 1994 by Sebastian Heath and David Yoon. As of 2002, approximately one third of the excavated site assemblage has been quantified. A few selected groups are presented here to give an overview of the results. These preliminary numbers may be corrected before final publication.
The four groups selected give an overview of the total site assemblage, the late ancient assemblage, the early to mid medieval assemblage, and the late medieval assemblage, respectively.
Surface collectionsThe best overview of the entire site assemblage can be obtained from surface collections from a field adjacent to the excavated area, which include material of all periods. The proportions of material of different periods vary from one part of the site to another, and this field seems to have more early material and less late medieval than other parts of the site, but the range is generally representative of the entire site assemblage, even though some rare types are absent. A particularly high proportion of this group is unidentified, because the surface assemblage included many eroded body sherds that could belong to any of various local fabrics.
| Type Name | Count | Weight (g) | Rim EVE | |||
| Prehistoric handmade | 11 | 1.3% | 69 | 1.7% | 0.05 | 1.4% |
| Campanian A | 1 | 0.1% | 2 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| South Gaulish sigillata | 4 | 0.5% | 7 | 0.2% | 0.01 | 0.3% |
| Sigillée Claire B | 5 | 0.6% | 18 | 0.4% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| African Red Slip | 12 | 1.5% | 37 | 0.9% | 0.23 | 6.5% |
| African amphora | 46 | 5.6% | 820 | 20.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Italian amphora | 2 | 0.2% | 13 | 0.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Baetican amphora | 1 | 0.1% | 65 | 1.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Late Roman amphora 2 | 4 | 0.5% | 83 | 2.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Claire récente | 4 | 0.5% | 28 | 0.7% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Commune à engobe micacée | 1 | 0.1% | 2 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Commune sableuse | 1 | 0.1% | 5 | 0.1% | 0.03 | 0.8% |
| Pisolithic | 6 | 0.7% | 56 | 1.4% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Kaolinitic | 22 | 2.7% | 45 | 1.1% | 0.09 | 2.5% |
| African coarseware | 1 | 0.1% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Aegean coarseware | 1 | 0.1% | 1 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Pierre ollaire | 1 | 0.1% | 51 | 1.2% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Gray kaolinitic: plain | 74 | 9.1% | 219 | 5.4% | 0.24 | 6.8% |
| Carolingian buff: plain | 25 | 3.1% | 225 | 5.5% | 0.49 | 13.8% |
| Carolingian buff: painted | 4 | 0.5% | 35 | 0.9% | 0.04 | 1.1% |
| Fine black: plain | 9 | 1.1% | 21 | 0.5% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy brown: plain | 12 | 1.5% | 82 | 2.0% | 0.15 | 4.2% |
| Soft brown: plain | 2 | 0.2% | 2 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Fine red: burnished | 1 | 0.1% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Coarse gray: plain | 1 | 0.1% | 5 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Calcareous gray: plain | 27 | 3.3% | 142 | 3.5% | 0.08 | 2.3% |
| Calcareous gray: rouletted | 1 | 0.1% | 7 | 0.2% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Calcareous gray: with applied cordon | 5 | 0.6% | 34 | 0.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: plain | 11 | 1.3% | 25 | 0.6% | 0.08 | 2.3% |
| Light kaolinitic: glazed | 143 | 17.5% | 348 | 8.5% | 0.93 | 26.3% |
| Light kaolinitic: glaze-washed | 17 | 2.1% | 29 | 0.7% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: white slip | 31 | 3.8% | 166 | 4.1% | 0.14 | 4.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: tin-glazed | 1 | 0.1% | 1 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: red slip | 1 | 0.1% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: rouletted | 1 | 0.1% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Monochrome green tin-glazed | 1 | 0.1% | 1 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Copper-and-manganese tin-glazed | 1 | 0.1% | 2 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Gray-beige calcareous | 1 | 0.1% | 24 | 0.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Soft pink: plain | 9 | 1.1% | 83 | 2.0% | 0.10 | 2.8% |
| Soft pink: glazed | 1 | 0.1% | 6 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Soft pink: glaze on white slip | 23 | 2.8% | 190 | 4.7% | 0.16 | 4.5% |
| Sandy beige: plain | 1 | 0.1% | 16 | 0.4% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy beige: glazed | 2 | 0.2% | 19 | 0.5% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy beige: glaze on white slip | 2 | 0.2% | 8 | 0.2% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy pink: orange glaze | 5 | 0.6% | 11 | 0.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Modern whiteware | 3 | 0.4% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.02 | 0.6% |
| Unidentified | 276 | 33.8% | 1058 | 25.9% | 0.66 | 18.6% |
| Total | 816 | 4084 | 3.54 | |||
Roof tiles, flowerpot pieces from the present operation of the farm, and non-ceramic artifacts have been omitted from this table.
Some of the best evidence for the late ancient assemblage at the site is provided by a group of large, refuse-filled pits located north of the crossing of the late church, under the fill on which the floor of the church was installed. Contexts 88.102.24 and 88.102.28 form part of the fill of one of these pits, the largest group from them that has been quantified so far. Like the other late ancient contexts at Psalmodi, this pit is notable for the range of imported wares present.
| Type Name | Count | Weight (g) | Rim EVE | |||
| South Gaulish sigillata | 1 | 0.4% | 2 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Thin-walled | 1 | 0.4% | 1 | 0.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| African Red Slip | 14 | 5.3% | 189 | 4.8% | 0.36 | 15.9% |
| D-S-P | 22 | 8.4% | 405 | 10.3% | 0.44 | 19.5% |
| African amphora | 67 | 25.6% | 2184 | 55.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Late Roman amphora 1 | 13 | 5.0% | 158 | 4.0% | 0.31 | 13.7% |
| Late Roman amphora 2 | 6 | 2.3% | 143 | 3.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Late Roman amphora 4 | 10 | 3.8% | 125 | 3.2% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Other eastern amphoras | 3 | 1.1% | 11 | 0.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Aegean cookware | 16 | 6.1% | 42 | 1.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Ligurian cookware | 2 | 0.8% | 71 | 1.8% | 0.09 | 4.0% |
| Palestinian cookware | 2 | 0.8% | 4 | 0.1% | 0.05 | 2.2% |
| Claire récente | 4 | 1.5% | 35 | 0.9% | 0.03 | 1.3% |
| Pisolithic | 57 | 21.8% | 356 | 9.0% | 0.52 | 23.0% |
| Kaolinitic (ancient) | 31 | 11.8% | 175 | 4.4% | 0.46 | 20.4% |
| Gray kaolinitic (medieval) | 4 | 1.5% | 24 | 0.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic (intrusive) | 2 | 0.8% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Unidentified | 7 | 2.7% | 21 | 0.5% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Total | 262 | 3949 | 2.26 | |||
Trench 95, located in a cluster of buildings adjacent to the cloister (probably including the refectory), does not seem to have been recorded stratigraphically, but two groups of pottery from the trench appear to form a coherent early to mid medieval assemblage, with very few later sherds, despite the construction of several large late medieval features in this area. One of these groups was labeled as "wall fill"; the other group is said to come from context 86.95.05; the locations of these contexts do not seem to have been recorded. Because both groups are very similar and could potentially have been stratigraphically related, they have been grouped together here. The date of this group could be as early as the ninth century, which is the approximate date of the painted Carolingian ware (none of the types represented here need be later, except for one or two intrusive late medieval fragments), but it may well have been redeposited in the eleventh or twelfth century, possibly with some pottery from that period included.
| Type Name | Count | Weight (g) | Rim EVE | |||
| Gray kaolinitic: plain | 4 | 8.9% | 21 | 2.0% | 0.06 | 16.2% |
| Gray kaolinitic: ridged | 1 | 2.2% | 27 | 2.5% | 0.12 | 32.4% |
| Carolingian buff: plain | 22 | 48.9% | 383 | 36.0% | 0.02 | 5.4% |
| Carolingian buff: painted | 8 | 17.8% | 296 | 27.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy brown: plain | 4 | 8.9% | 155 | 14.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Coarse gray: plain | 2 | 4.4% | 47 | 4.4% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic (intrusive) | 1 | 2.2% | 30 | 2.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Unidentified | 3 | 6.7% | 105 | 9.9% | 0.17 | 45.9% |
| Total | 45 | 1064 | 0.37 | |||
The unidentified pieces include one large rim, which may be a piece of a ceramic pipe for water or drainage, in which case it may be intrusive, but it appears to be of a gray kaolinitic fabric used in the early-mid medieval period.
Context 86.94.04 is a somewhat mixed group from a small, deep sondage in the courtyard of the modern farmhouse. It probably represents a combination of residual materials stratified immediately under the floor of the late cloister, a large group roughly contemporary with the abandonment of the monastery, and some intrusive later items introduced when the stones that paved the floor of the cloister galleries were removed for reuse. Although they do not form a well-defined stratigraphic unit, they provide an aggregated overview of the later medieval and early modern assemblage at the site.
| Type Name | Count | Weight (g) | Rim EVE | |||
| Gray kaolinitic: plain | 5 | 1.6% | 24 | 0.9% | 0.07 | 2.3% |
| Gray kaolinitic: burnished | 1 | 0.3% | 9 | 0.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Carolingian buff: plain | 10 | 3.2% | 103 | 3.9% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Carolingian buff: painted | 3 | 0.9% | 23 | 0.9% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Fine black: plain | 4 | 1.3% | 30 | 1.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Fine red: burnished | 12 | 3.8% | 111 | 4.2% | 0.20 | 6.5% |
| Calcareous gray: plain | 47 | 14.8% | 322 | 12.1% | 0.10 | 3.2% |
| Calcareous gray: with applied cordon | 9 | 2.8% | 73 | 2.7% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Calcareous gray: burnished | 2 | 0.6% | 17 | 0.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: plain | 68 | 21.5% | 358 | 13.5% | 0.93 | 30.2% |
| Light kaolinitic: glazed | 14 | 4.4% | 150 | 5.6% | 0.03 | 1.0% |
| Light kaolinitic: glaze-washed | 77 | 24.3% | 651 | 24.5% | 1.10 | 35.7% |
| Light kaolinitic: white slip | 10 | 3.2% | 223 | 8.4% | 0.40 | 13.0% |
| Monochrome green tin-glazed ("Languedoc" style) | 1 | 0.3% | 3 | 0.1% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Copper-and-manganese tin-glazed ("Avignon" style) | 1 | 0.3% | 9 | 0.3% | 0.09 | 2.9% |
| Spanish blue-on-white tin-glazed | 1 | 0.3% | 4 | 0.2% | 0.06 | 1.9% |
| Gray-beige calcareous: plain | 1 | 0.3% | 47 | 1.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Granular red: plain | 3 | 0.9% | 16 | 0.6% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Soft pink: plain | 37 | 11.7% | 371 | 14.0% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Soft pink: glazed | 3 | 0.9% | 21 | 0.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Soft pink: glaze on white slip | 1 | 0.3% | 2 | 0.1% | 0.04 | 1.3% |
| Sandy beige: glazed | 3 | 0.9% | 35 | 1.3% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Sandy beige: glazed with reserve | 1 | 0.3% | 7 | 0.3% | 0.06 | 1.9% |
| Unidentified | 3 | 0.9% | 49 | 1.8% | 0.00 | 0.0% |
| Total | 317 | 2658 | 3.08 | |||