The majority of the pottery notebooks are handwritten in ink and pencil in a standard, colummar format, with information arranged by find site area or unit number order and then by type, starting with unpainted finds to more elaborate painted types, and conclude with a comment. The headings are written in shorthand, eg ‘UP’ for ‘unpainted’. Entries marked with an asterisk were mostly retained, the rest usually 'papsed' (discarded). 'Papsing' often indicated by a 'P' with a squiggle underneath.

'Units' are the groups of items found in one context/level from a trench, which were transferred to a 'zembilli' (a straw basket or latterly a bucket made out of recycled tyres) and recorded. The unit descriptions correspond across excavation notebooks and phasing lists.