Pottery

**Sidevalve45** · May 23, 2007, 09:06 PM

My 10 year old son found this piece of pottery on a sand bar. I believe it's native American and grit tempered.

**Neanderthal** · May 23, 2007, 09:17 PM

Cool piece, looks woodland.

**badandy** · May 23, 2007, 10:08 PM

That is real neat! I haven't seen one with holes drilled in it yet. Thanks for showing us your boys find, and get back down to that waterway!
badandy

**Johnny X** · May 24, 2007, 02:03 AM

Very Nice. Did you check around the spot for more? If not.. GET BACK DOWN THERE!!!!!!!!

xstevenx

Atlantis0077 · May 24, 2007, 10:24 AM

Morning,

I find pottery pieces here with holes rarely. The usual cause for the holes is twofold...one, they hung the pots up by means of the holes and two if the pot was cracked in some way the would drill a hole on either side of the crack and lace it together like a corset....lol. Interesting to find them though.

Happy Hunting

Atlantis

**Sidevalve45** · May 26, 2007, 04:54 PM

It's a cool spot. We visit the place regularly and have found other artifacts as well. I plan on posting them when I get time. Thanks, SV

pickaway · May 26, 2007, 06:18 PM

That is great...

**Neanderthal** · May 26, 2007, 11:32 PM

From the looks of it, I don't think the holes were drilled in the pottery. It's very commonplace in some woodland cultural pottery to "push" nodes from the inside of the bowl outwards. They would take a round stick and push from the inside, made a bump or node on the outside. That piece looks like the nodes broke off, leaving it looking like just holes. Several woodland pieces, such as Cooper Zone Stamped, practiced that technique.

**Sidevalve45** · May 27, 2007, 08:53 AM

Hi Matt,
After looking at the piece again I think you are probably right. Found this tiny Madison point last night not far from where the pottery piece was found.

**CarolinaDigs** · May 29, 2007, 09:25 PM

Love it !!

**SimonLakeSub** · May 30, 2007, 07:36 AM

My friend has a small pot, with 2 holes in it. (late woodland) I was also under the impression the holes were put there to repair the pot. (New york)

Regards Simon

**Neanderthal** · May 31, 2007, 07:30 PM

Simon, they do drill holes in pottery sometimes to repair it. Also, sometimes they would drill holes on opposing sides of the rim, to suspend them by (like in seed jars). However, in this case...I believe it's a case of Hopewellian pottery (rarer than hen's teeth) that had the nodes broken off at the top, making the "holes". I have several pieces of pottery like it and let me tell you, it's some of the most rare and hard to acquire pottery there is. I have hundreds of pottery vessels (yes, hundreds)...and not a single totally complete Hopewellian pot. They are more rare than any clovis, Eden, Complete Calf Creek, Folsom, or even a Mimbres Figural. I have found alot of Cooper Zone Stamped vessel shards..but none close to complete, it's a goal of mine. If I can remember some time, I'll take pics of some Hopewellian pottery just like that shard to show.

**coalfire** · Jun 01, 2007, 05:27 PM

personally I would say the hole are for hanging. Below is a photo of an Iriquois pot. The neck is for the rope to hang it. also Susquehannock types have the neck flopped ovet and the rope then went around to hand it. This material that yours is made of looks older than woodland but I am not an expert. Great find thanks for the view!
~Z~

**Sidevalve45** · Jun 01, 2007, 08:41 PM

Thanks to all of you for the input. How old do you think it is? Also I tried to get a little bit to the holes with the camera but I don't think you can see much better detail.

**Neanderthal** · Jun 01, 2007, 09:21 PM

Ok, here are a few pics of some deteriorated Cooper Zone Stamped pottery (I have better ones, but these will suffice to show the type). These are Hopewell (mid woodland) shards. All are rim shards, the top 3 are from one vessel and are connectors from one vessel. The bottom one is there to show you how they can do rim decoration. These are NOT drilled holes. They would take a round instrument (stick) and push it from the inside of the pot outwards and round them off on the outside to made "nodes" for decoration. Typically rim decoration would consist of lines (as sidevalves is), to more complicated patterns...and a high number would have these nodes. Look closely at the top three pieces and you will notice the shard at the top had the outside "node" deteriorate or break off..this is what left the hole. The inside holes on these pieces are still caked with mud, sorry..I should've cleaned them off to give you a better view...but you get the idea anyways. The bottom shard also had the same nodes and that is where the shard is broken off. You can see a few of the semi-circular marks where the nodes were, if you look closely. If you look at the outside surface of sidevalves shard, you can clearly see where they nodes broke off, or deteriorated. Anyways..hope this helps.