burial pot bottoms?

[Jon Stewart]

Your thoughts? Do they exist?


I have what I believe is the bottom of a burial pot. It is the size of a 50 cent piece and has a drawing of a six legged bug.

Didn't know what it represented when I found it laying in an area that was chuck full of pottery. Wife went to a museum and saw several burial pot bottoms and said that the drawing represented the person that had been buried in someway and that the bottom of the pot was knocked out so spirits could be released.

I mentioned this recently to a geologist that has one of the best artifact collections I have ever seen and he disregarded that idea of what the sherd represented.



But then again he contends that moccasin lasts exist and many on here don't. Does anyone really know what the things we find stand for or are used for outside of the maker of the item? Are we all just guessing?

Open for discussion!!!

 

[GatorBoy]

I have one I will photograph when I get back to the house that has an impression on the bottom.. It's nothing fancy it actually looks like it was resting on something like a stick while it was being dried

 

[Jon Stewart]

Photos will be on here next week I looked at it again after I started this post. Not a kokopelli design. Three legs on each side of the figure and a circle design around the bug. Definately a broken piece of pottery as the edges were not rounded like a game piece.

 

[GatorBoy]

Sounds cool.
Looking forward to seeing it.
It's not much but this is that little piece I was talking about

 

[rock]

I was told this was a pot bottom

 

[NC field hunter]

I'm on the same page as Timekiller. I wouldn't know a burial pot from an eating pot. I have heard of pots the size of wash tubs being found. Unfortunately, I can't dig through my collection and show you guys one. Would the burial pots have been used for cremation ashes? Did they cremate back then?

 

[timekiller]

I'm on the same page as Timekiller. I wouldn't know a burial pot from an eating pot. I have heard of pots the size of wash tubs being found. Unfortunately, I can't dig through my collection and show you guys one. Would the burial pots have been used for cremation ashes? Did they cremate back then?

Tell you what I've seen some that were in the side of banks that would not fit in the back of a pickup truck.I believe these type were always made underground either for storage or mabe for tanning only thing I can think of.

 

[timekiller]

The large ones like I'm talking about that I've seen here are always in a clay bank already if you are lucky enough to find one before it falls out which always is in pieces they have the same look as any other you would think of just bigger & the clay seems to be always brighter orange/red then the normal pieces & do not believe they were ever fired, as said just dug out in the clay & used.

 

[monsterrack]

This is JMO on the killing of some pots, I know they did kill and break some items, but what I think about the bottom being broken is the with the pot being round on the bottom, the weight of the soil pressing down all these years would break them . Where I live if any heavy machine rolls over the soil it will break the pots, even if they or a couple of feet downI can not count how many pots in a bag I have. On the subject of cremation, I have not heard of that practice in N.A. culture, what I know of is they did 2nd and some times 3rd burials, some time there are more than 1 person in a pot. The large pots I don't know what they where used for because I think with a large vessel it would need to be a strong texture , to able to hold the pressure that would be placed on it from what was placed inside , due to volume of items.