Compared to much of mainland Scotland during this period, pottery assemblages from Perth and Kinross tend to be generally small, even when associated with good evidence for domestic structural remains. For example, the post-built roundhouse and souterrain at Newmill East (Watkins and Barclay 1981) produced only a single sherd, while only a small assemblage was found at Aldclune (Hingley et al 1998) and no pottery was discovered at the Black Spout monumental roundhouse (Strachan 2013, 32). Some larger assemblages have been recovered from both lowland and upland Iron Age, or purportedly Iron Age, settlements, for example at Blackford (O’Connell and Anderson 2021), Dalrulzion (Thorneycroft 1933), Dalnaglar (Stewart 1964), Carn Dubh, Moulin, Craighead, Alyth (MPK4114; Rideout 1996) and Oakbank crannog, Loch Tay (Dixon forthcoming). Small assemblages of Roman pottery, usually the occasional sherd, have also been recorded on later Iron Age sites (discussed below).
Iron Age pottery in Perth and Kinross remains poorly understood, and much of it falls within the category of ‘flat-rimmed ware’ (Coles and Taylor 1970), a rather ill-defined ware present for much of the 2nd–1st millennia BC. The limited nature of assemblages from settlement in the area has prevented regional synthesis and detailed typological work. New finds, considered alongside reanalysis of older assemblages, should offer broader datasets which may provide some regional and chronological distinctions.