Pottery pcs.....

[SOHIO]

Got around to cleaning up some of what we pulled out of the shelter saturday and washed off these pcs of pottery. I don't usually come across pottery, had a site years ago that I was finding a few pcs that had shell tempering. These pcs I found here are grit tempered I presume, and the outside has of course different color than the inside. The outside has an orange/tan color to it. I was wondering where one would begin to identify pcs of pottery like this. I was thinking that with pottery you could identify a more precise time period/phase on my shelter. I'm pretty sure its not multicomponent. The only complete pc I have from this shelter is the drill I posted saturday, but the points from the 3 sites that are above and around this shelter yield adena. Thanks for any insight.

 

[Tnmountains]

Not knowing your area it will be hard to say but I can say this. If you start finding incised lines or what they call a cord wrapped pottery or stamped pottery it can be nailed down to time frames. Just plain pottery could be tough unless someone in your area knows what they tempered it with and when like shell or crushed limestone.
Maybe someone like Joshua on here might be able to give a better answer.

 

[SOHIO]

Thanks Tn. that sounds right , it probably would take someone thats pretty familiar with pottery from the area.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Shell tempered Pottery is Late Woodland and associated with the Ft Ancient in southern Ohio, Monongahela in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and Mississippian in the south. It is usually dated from 950 to 1650 AD on most sites.

Grit/sand tempered Pottery is much older and is Early to Middle Woodland and associated with the Adena and Hopewell cultures. It usually dates from around 1000 BC until the advent of the Ft Ancient.

Everything you see in the first 9 pictures is Shell tempered and from Ft Ancient sites in southern Ohio.

The last 2 pictures are from a Hopewell site I hunt almost every piece is Grit tempered. There are two pieces where you can see some small bits of Shell and I believe these are from where they were transitioning from one phase to the next. 95% of the Pottery from this site is Grit tempered, but we will find a Shell tempered piece every now and then.

Since you find Adena Points near your shelter I would say the Pottery is very Early Woodland and related to the Adena Culture.

 

[SOHIO]

Steve thanks for taking the time to post on this. The site that I mentioned that I found shell tempering on was an adena/hopewell site I didn't find anything related to ft ancient. This site had a lot of calcium deposits on the flint and a few points, I also found quite a bit of bone fragments and clam shells from the raccoon which runs just down the hill. as I dug that site. Unfortunately I didn't get to finish digging there before the gravel co. started in on it. I'll have to see if I can find those pcs ( I'm not the type that catagorizes my collection too much.) anyway maybe I was wrong about the shell tempering but I'm certain it had fragments visable and it was the same clam shell like I was finding in the dirt.

 

[iowa trout]

Great insight on the t-net thanks all, Here is my contribution just a handfull of thousands of shell frags in a small area I think was somehow used in pottery production .The rest of the area is great surface collecting and has seen some heavy occupation .

 

[larson1951]

hey SRV
do you have any images of the shards that i sent you??
of you do you could post them just for something else for the tnetters to peruse
thanks
steve
larson

 

[musky44]

thanks for the info guys, i think ill get some of my shards out later. i have never labled any of my pottery pieces in the past, but from here on out i will mark the location to keep them organized.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

SOHIO, as they got closer to the Late Woodland phase in Pottery making they did use Shell for tempering. The Grit tempered is very early, so you will find some Shell tempered on those Hopewell sites just like the ones I pictured above from a Hopewell site.

larson, I don't think I have any on my home computer, but I'll look and if I do I'll post them.

Here's some Pottery pieces from a Mandan site in North Dakota.

 

[SOHIO]

Thanks for the information steve and all the examples put up .