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It is our hope that the pictures and descriptions in this section will assist you in discovering the identity of your pottery sherds and the history behind them. If you are unable to identify your finds from this list, please feel free to contact me (Lloyd Schroder – see CONTACT US) with pictures of your discoveries and information regarding their general location. The pictures should include a clear picture of surface decoration, rim structure (if possible), the interior of the vessel, and a cross-section of the sherd. I will make every effort to respond as quickly as possible to your requests.
For more detailed information on these and other pottery types within the Southeastern United States, please see our “Publications” page to order Lloyd Schroder’s Field Guide to Southeastern Indian Pottery (Revised & Expanded).
This amazing new book contains over 500 pottery types, each explained in very readable terms with thousands of illustrations and maps of distribution. The volume has earned the acilades of senior archaeologists like David Anderson of the University of Tennessee and well-known Georgia archaeologist Jerald Ledbetter. No serious student of archaeology should be without it.
a. Lloyd Schroeder collection, b. Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: Fine Sand and mica. Paste is compact, granular, and slightly contorted. Buff cross section or gray core with buff-fired surfaces. Interior surfaces smoothed to a low polish. Pale, dull buff to orange-red buff. Black fire mottling.
Distribution: Northwest Florida Coast in the vicinity of Carrabelle.
Age: Middle Woodland Santa Rosa Swift Creek period
Vessel forms: Rims are slightly outflared and lips are round-pointed and flat-round. Vessel forms are unknown
Decoration: Combination of curvilinear and rectilinear elements. Background area done in check stamping with most clearly resembles small clear check of Gulf Check Stamped. Concentric circles, lobate figures, interlocked whorls, and “rayed” elements or stars are the foreground features. Foreground elements may often be superimposed stamping over check stamping. Entire vessel is decorated.
Gordon R Willey (1949)
Temper: Fine and course sand
Distribution: Largely Tampa Bay and Manatee regions, but also found north of this area on a limited basis
Age: Late Woodland, Weeden Island II period
Vessel forms: Bowls with incurved rims, long-collared jars, beakers are possible pot forms. Rim projections of triangular forms, arranged four to a vessel.
Decoration: A small check stamped background, reminiscent of Gulf Check Stamped, over which has been impressed a secondary set of design units. These last may be spirals, dot-in-circles, ovals, lozenge-shaped elements, and even criss-crossed, stamping over most of the vessel surface except the base.
Gordon R. Willey (1949)
Florida Museum of Natural History
donated by Paleo Enterprises
Temper: Sand tempered. Core is black, gray, or dark brown. Surfaces often buff. Interior smoothing excels exterior surface treatment. Thickness averages 8 to 9 mm.
Distribution: Florida Gulf Coast. Most common around Tampa Bay and in the Manatee region.
Age: Late Woodland, Weeden Island II period
Vessel Form: Globular bowls, jars with short collars, and open bowls. Rims are sometimes thickened at the margin with suggestions of exterior folds. Triangular rim projections or “ears.” Incised line below rim in some cases. Lip rounded but varies from pointed to flattened.
Decoration: Rows of small dentations arranged in an irregular fashion. Most specimens appear to have been stamped with a small unit stamp with four or five teeth. The pits of the individual impressions are about 1 mm. across. Some are rectangular, others semilunar. Some specimens appear to have been decorated with a single-track roulette or, possibly, a single-pointed punctating instrument. All are characterized by rows of small pit impressions, and the rows are oriented in all directions. Decoration covers most of the exterior of the vessel.
Deagan and Thomas (2009)
collection of Jim Tatum
This type was defined by Hale Smith (1948). Resemblance between this type and Caldwell’s King George Malleated (now Altamaha Malleated) has been pointed out by Smith. Vessel shapes found in Georgia may be the only difference in the types.
Temper: Usually sand tempered, but near St. Augustine it may be tempered with sand and limestone or just limestone. Rarely shell is included.
Distribution:The type is abundant in late 17th century sites on the St. Johns River, near St. Augustine, and northwards along the coast. Smith has noted a post-1686 date for simple and cross-simple with other decorations peaking before that date. Westward it occurs in central Florida and near Tallahassee.
Age: Historic 17th Century pottery
Vessel forms: Usually large, deep, rounded-base jars, with a constricted area below a slightly flaring rim. The Spanish “soup plate” is not uncommon. Occasionally the Spanish ring base is found on some vessels.
Decoration:This is paddle stamped check, simple, cross simple or complicated patterns. Designs are bold, but sometimes badly smeared and often crude. Further modifications include a folded lip, at times marked by reed punctations. The interiors of most vessels are well smoothed and may be painted red. Rarely red and white paint are used on the same vessel.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: Sand or grit
Distribution: Known as Altamaha Line Blocked in Georgia and distributed along the Georgia coast around the mouth of the Altamaha River. Also recovered from Coffee County, Georgia
Age: 17th century historic pottery
Vessel forms: Deep jars and bowls, open bowls, globular bowls
Decoration: Line Block stamped design over the entire surface of the vessel.
Deagan and Thomas (2009)
Temper: Grog tempered, crushed pottery sherds, and some sand tempered examples
Distribution: St. Mary’s region in northeastern Florida
Age: Late pre-Colombian and mission period Mocama Timucua pottery of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Vessel forms: Globular bowls. Rim and lip treatment unknown.
Decoration: Curvilinear stamping over the surface of the vessel.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: Ground clay or sherd temper, in Alabama this pottery is tempered with medium-coarse sand occasionally with granule gravel additions (S. Wimberly, 1960).
Distribution: Northwest Golf Coast to the western edge of the Central Golf Coast and the Mobile Bay region of Alabama
Age: Middle Woodland, Santa Rosa-Swift Creek period, but is considered transitional from the Early Woodland period in the Mobile Bay region of Alabama as it was recovered with Tchefuncte Stamped pottery at the Gayou La Batre Shell Midden site there.
Vessel forms: Rims are out-flared or straight with lips that are scalloped or notched. Vessels have straight sides with rounded bottoms. Sherds from the Bayou La Batre Shell Midden site indicate medium-sized globular bowls with orifices only slightly constricted orifices of 12 to 15 cm in diameters and bodies of 18 to 20 cm in diameter. Rims are direct and follow the gradual inward curve of the upper body wall. Lips are flattened to round-flattened.
Decoration: Shell rocker stamping. Alabama examples are covered with stamping in rows of zig-zag stamping that ran parallel to each other and usually, but not always, overlapping slightly. Rows of stamping run vertically in most cases. When rows of stamping do not overlap, they are usually spaced about as far apart as each row of stamping is wide (1 to 2.5 cm) with undecorated sections of the same width between them. Stamping made by small scallop shell. Stamping usually extends to the lip.
C. B. More
Gordon R Willey (1949)
Temper: Fine sand and mica. Surface is well smoothed, even to a low polish on interiors. Orange-buff throughout or gray-black core with one or both surfaces fired.
Distribution: Northwestern Florida coast between Choctawhatchee Bay and St. Andrews Bay for which it is named.
Age: Middle Woodland Santa Rosa-Swift Creek period
Vessel forms: Straight-sided vessels with straight or slightly out-flaring rims. Lips are scalloped or notched. Bases are rounded
Decoration: Rectilinear complicated stamping over the entire body of the vessel. Designs include line block, hatched rectangles, diagonally bisected rectangles with each triangular half filled with hachure, and concentric rectangles or triangles.
Florida Museum of Natural History
This was named by Willey after St. Andrews Bay in northwestern Florida.
Temper: Fine sand or grit
Distribution: Northwestern Florida Coast
Age: Late Woodland, Weeden Island I period
Vessel forms: Rims are folded and are either straight or incurved and are the defining characteristic of the late variety.
Decoration: Rectangular complicated stamping. Execution of the stamping includes designs that are larger and bolder than in the early variety. Often referred to as the “tractor tire” stamp.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: Fine and course sand
Distribution: Tampa Bay and Manatee regions
Age: Late Woodland, Weeden Island II period, related to St. Andrews Complicated Stamped
Vessel forms: Flattened-globular bowl with unmodified rim
Decoration: Concentric diamond figure with dot in center, concentric diamond with solid diamond figure in center, or concentric rectangle unit. Units are about 3cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide. Sloppily executed with considerable overlapping of unit impressions. Lines of the design unit tend to be narrow and the impression faint. Applied to vessel exterior.
a. Florida Museum of Natural History b. Lloyd Schroeder collection
Temper: Fine sand, mica or small grit
Distribution: Northwest and north-central Florida and related complicated stamping as far south as Tampa Bay
Age: Middle Woodland, Santa Rosa Swift Creek period
Vessel forms: Globular jar with slightly out-flared rim and rounded base. Early forms may have a tetrapodal base. Rims are straight and vertical or slightly out-slanted or out-curved at the opening. Occasionally slight thickening on the exterior edge. Lips are small, close-spaced, round-bottomed notches. Appendages are small, solid tetrapodal supports.
Decoration: Designs are applied with a paddle, curved rocker, or cylindrical instrument. Designs are predominately curvilinear, although rectilinear elements are sometimes combined with curvilinear ones. Designs have a number of elements resulting in a complex whole. Many designs are highly stylized natural figures including insects, reptiles, flowers and stellar formations. It seems that each extended family may have had its own design variation.
Pvt. collections from artifact identification days
a. Ocmulgee National Monument b. Jackie Fuller collection
Temper: Fine and course sand, but more coarse than Early Swift Creek
Distribution: Northwest Gulf Coast of Florida inland into Georgia.
Age: Middle Woodland, Weeden Island I
Vessel forms: Long and short collared jars and simple jars. Flattened-globular bowls and collared globular bowls also occur as do some pot forms. Rims are in-curved, and out-curved and recurved. Also in-slanted and out-slanted. Exterior folded or thickened rims. Rim folds vary from a few mm. to 2 cm. in width.
Decoration: Complicated, predominantly curvilinear designs, but may also be “ladder” designs with check stamped or simple stamping within parallel lines that usually run vertically along the vessel exterior. Decoration may or may not have a collar or small area of undecorated space below the rim, but will always be limited to the upper portion of the vessel. In many respects, decoration is very close to the designs of the Early Variety of the type, but less intricate. Common are “snow shoe,” hatched tear drop, concentric spirals, concentric circles as part of a greater design, interlocking scrolls and rectilinear elements (sometimes called “ladder” designs), intertwined meander, simple concentric curved lines. Execution is more bold and carelessly done than Early Variety. The results in either deeper impressions or may be hastily applied.
Gordon R Willey (1949)
donated by Paleo Enterprises
Similar to Little Manatee Complicated Stamped decoration but sand tempered and related to Swift Creek rather than Weeden Island II period.
Temper: Fine and course sand. Often with gray core and buff surfaces or gray to black throughout.
Distribution: Tampa Bay and Manatee region with some sporadic occurrences further north.
Age: Middle Woodland, Late Swift Creek period.
Vessel Form: Simple jars, pots, or deep bowls and flattened globular bowls. Rims are out-slanting or incurved with exterior folds. Lips are rounded and usually unmodified.
Decoration: Medium deep to faint impressions of a spiral, concentric circle, or dot-in-circle design unit. Design unit varies in diameter from 2 to 6 cm. Application is haphazard and sloppy with considerable overlapping.
This examples was recovered in Laurens County Georgia and is considered to be the upper reaches of the type distribution.Temper: Sand or grit
Distribution: North central Florida, Suwannee Valley region
Age: Late Woodland and Mississippian periods
Vessel Form: Simple bowls, jars ranging from conoidal forms with slightly incurved rims to jars with straight or slightly flaring rims. Lips are simple, flattened or rounded, and no appendages are known. Vessels were frequently drilled below the rim, presumably to provide suspension.
Decoration: Vessels were impressed with scallop shell.
