Archaeological Research at Its Finest

Chamber pots are similarly scarce in sites of the first two periods. Such pots are interesting artifacts which have been largely replaced in our modern world by indoor plumbing. They were an outlet for the expression of their makers' earthy humor on many occaisions. Examples survive from the seventeenth century with faces modeled in three dimensions in their bottoms, and the king's initials were sometimes placed on their rims. Various mottoes exhorting their users to perform their bodily functions with dispatch were applied in slip on their sides. One of the more charming verses appears on certain pearlware chamber pots, lettered inside on the bottom:

Treat me nice and keep me clean
and I'll not tell what I have seen.

--In Small Things Forgotten, James Deetz

In short, my job is a hoot and a half.