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——–Click on the surface treatment that most resembles your find———–
Pottery is an amazing artifact. There are many types, all with different designs or no design at all. Designs come from the potter’s imagination or his beliefs. All have different tempers, some of grit or small pebbles, some of Spanish Moss that has burned away, leaving only a trace of its existence. Some types are tempered with sand and some with clay; others with what some would call no temper at all, only to discover that there are small, microscopic sponge spicules that hold it together.
Think about this. Pottery is a lot like people. Each one was fashioned by the Potter’s hand, each uniquely designed from the Potter’s heart. Some were designed for daily use while others were designed for special occasions and celebration. All were tempered, but all have a different temperament. How has the Potter designed you and tempered you? What was His special plan and purpose? We are clay in His hands. Many are like much of the pottery we find, broken and discarded by the world, but there is still hope. Like the pot sherds that were broken and cast aside, then recovered and rounded into gaming stones to become the center of joy in an Indian’s life, our broken lives can be renewed to become the center of joy in the Potter’s heart.
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. Florida Museum of Natural History, b. C.B. Moore
Temper: fine sand
Distribution: Florida Gulf Coast
Age: Weeden Island related (Willey), Late Woodland
Vessel forms: flattened-globular bowls, short collared jars, and tri-lobed jars all noted
Decoration: find to medium incised lines made on soft unfired clay. Closely spaced arrangement of lines giving almost a “combed” appearance in some cases. Designs are sweeping curvilinear loops, whorls, and straight-line herringbone arrangements. In the latter case the design is made up of a great many lines as opposed to the Carrabelle Incised type.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: fine sand
Distribution: Florida Gulf Coast, following general distribution of more characteristic Weeden Island types
Age: Weeden Island related (Willey), Late Woodland
Vessel forms: flattened-globular bowls and colored jars. Rims are in-curving and out-flaring, often thickened below the lip. Round and flat exterior folds below the rim. Lips are rounded with variations toward both flat and pointed. Bases are rounded and flat. Appendages may be triangular rim projections.
Decoration: incised lines occasionally in conjunction with punctations. A band of diagonal cross hatching with diamonds ranging from 3 to 5 mm in length. Punclations are sometimes placed at all or some of the intersections of the incised lines. Decoration appears below the lip on the exterior the vessel. I’m incised line usually separates decorated zone from the rim and from the undecorated portion below.
Florida Museum of Natural History, Bert Mowers (1975)
Temper: sand, but is also on Goodland paste and west coast paste that has grit in it.
Distribution: One of the most used patterns in the Miami area.
Age: Glades IIa-b, A.D. 750 – 1100
Vessel forms: Some incision on rims and some lip grooving; typically a row of single incised loops, or arcs, opening downward, continuous around the pot below the lip.
Decoration: Vertical incised lines with elongated arches closely spaced between them or elongated arches together, both designs in a series that stretches around the rim of the vessel just below the rim.
Ocmulgee National Monument
This form would conform to John Worth’s Columbia variant and is identical to Lamar Bold Incised used during Georgia’s Late Mississippian period.
Temper: Grit
Distribution: No geographical description is given by John Worth for his Lamar Incised type other than the region of study within the Suwannee Valley region.
Age: Historic Spanish Mission period
Vessel forms: Restricted to carinated bowl form as described by Scarry for Lamar Bold Incised.
Decoration:Two varieties are identified by Worth. Fine line incising is named Ocmulgee Fields. and Bold incising is named Columbia variant.
Florida Museum of Natural History
This type was defined by William Sears at the Tierra Verde site near Tampa, Florida.
Temper: Grit
Distribution: Apparently in the Lake Jackson area of Leon County and perhaps as far south along the west coast as far as the Tierra Verde site in the Manatee region
Age: Fort Walton related, Middle Mississippian
Vessel forms: Collared bowls, usually with strap handles.
Decoration: Arcading parallel incised lines on collared bowls. Incised lines appear on the collars as well, much the same as Pinellas Incised.
Gordon R Willey (1949), donated by Paleo Enterprises
Temper: Sand, surface is reddish buff to gray, core is sometimes gray-black
Distribution: Rare type. Manatee region of Florida in small quantities.
Age: Englewood period and perhaps Weeden Island II period of Late Woodland period
Vessel forms: Beakers. No rim modifications. Lip rounded
Decoration: Thin to medium wide and deep incised lines that have been made in vessel after clay had dried but before firing. Occasionally lines look as though they are engraved, as they display fine fractured edges. Triangles and rectangles of paste are also cut out in champleve fashion. Designs are composed of series of parallel lines about 5 to 10mm apart. May be arranged vertically. diagonally, or horizontally to rim. Elements are essentially rectilinear, although some curvilinear segments are noted on some sherds.
(facsimile) after Bert Mowers (1975)
Temper: Limestone
Distribution: The Glades Region of south Florida
Age: Early Woodland, Glades I period (400 B.C. to A.D. 400)
Vessel forms: Most Glades region vessels were bowls with rounded and incurved walls and rims
Decoration: Diagonal lines in sets of 3 incised in opposite directions around the circumference and just below the rim of the vessel.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: fine sand
Distribution: Northwest Florida coast
Age: Fort Walton related (Willey), Middle Mississippian
Vessel forms: opened bowl form.
Decoration: medium-bold line incision. Designs and band around vessel below rim. Consist of opposed triangles which are filled with parallel incised lines. Also Chevron arrangements made up of diagonally placed series of parallel incised lines below rim, and parallel vertical lines below rim.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: Fine sand
Distribution:South Florida, Miami area. This pattern is possibly a regional one, and not very often seen on Glades hammock sites in Broward County. It is plentiful at upper Matecumbe Key sites.
Age: Glades IIb, A.D. 900 – 1100
Vessel forms: In-curving bowls
Decoration: Cross-hatched incisions below the lip and sometimes covering the whole pot, making diamond shaped or triangular figures. This is rather more involved than most Glades incised styles, and varies quite widely on individual pots.
Bert Mowers (1975)
Temper: Pamlico sand and other bits of marl, shell bits and other foreign substances accidentally occurring in the raw materials are common in West Coast ceramics from Goodland Point to Safety Harbor.
Distribution: South Florida
Age: Glades IIa, A.D. 750 – 900
Vessel forms: In-curving Bowls
Decoration: Typically, this pattern consists of parallel diagonal lines arranged in groups of 2 to 4, continuous below the lip of the vessel. Vertical lines may also be found.
Gordon R Willey (1949)
Temper: Sand
Distribution: analogous to the Key Largo, Opa Locka relationship
Age: Perico Island related,
Vessel forms: Most Glades region vessels were bowls with in-curving walls and rims.
Decoration: This is an incised pattern of arches with openings upwards, continuous around the pot below the lip. A variant is with two straight lines in opposing diagonal groups around the rim, with a cat-whisker effect. Arcs may also be in groups of 2 to 4, instead of single lines.
Florida Museum of Natural History, C. B. More
Temper: Fine crushed shell
Distribution: Northwest Florida coast
Age: Fort Walton related (Willey), Middle Mississippian
Vessel forms: Collard globular bowl is shown by Moore.
Decoration: Employs both incision and engraving. Major outlines of designs usually done in broad-line incision. Background work done in fine line engraved hacture or cross-hacture. Designs usually consist of life forms such as eagles, men with eagle masks, human skulls, etc. Design elements part of Southern Cult.
(facsimile) after Bert mowers (1975)
Temper: Sand and typical Arch Creek paste
Distribution:South Florida, Miami area
Age: Related to Dade Incised
Vessel forms: Most Glades Region vessels were bowls with in-curving walls and rims.
Decoration: Made with elongated ovate loops chained around the vessel rim just below the lip.
(facsimile) after Bert Myouowers (1975)
Temper: Arch Creek paste
Distribution: Glades region
Age: Middle Woodland, Glades IIa, (A.D. 400 – 600)
Vessel forms: Most Glades region vessels were bowls with in-curving walls and rims
Decoration: Concentric inverted arches along the rim
Florida Anthropologist
Temper: Fiber
Distribution:The area of Tallahassee, Florida and along the Florida Gulf Coast and perhaps into southwestern Georgia.
Age: Late Archaic, probably coeval with Refuge Plain on the Georgia Coast
Vessel forms: Shallow and deep bowls and jars, perhaps with straight to in-slanting sides and simple rims much like Orange and Wheeler vessels.
Decoration: Narrow incising in straight diagonal lines or along the rim. Other Orange-like designs may also exist.
