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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.
Florida Museum of Natural History
RESEARCH: Gordon R. Willey described this type in 1949.[i] John Goggin named this type in 1948.[ii]Goggin’s research focused on sites in the area of Payne’s Prairie near Gainesville, Florida.
TEMPER: Medium grained quartz sand was used as temper. The external paste is gray, brown, or buff in color.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface is plainly finished and poorly smoothed.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include simple bowls with unmodified rims.
CHRONOLOGY: Alachua pottery has been assigned to the Late Mississippian period and into the Historic period. It may have occurred as early as the Weeden Island II period and extend as far as the Leon-Jefferson period. Willey suggested that it was contemporary with Leon-Jefferson types. Associated artifacts might include Mississippian Triangular points.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Generally, this type is found in sites in the Alachua prairie around Gainesville, Florida, but Alachua pottery has been found as far north as the southernmost counties of Georgia.
[i] Willey, Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.494
[ii] Goggin, John M., Some pottery types from central Florida, Gainesville Anthropological Association, Bulletin No.1 1948
Florida Museum of Natural History
Defined by Gordon Willey from the Belle Glade site and Palm Beach County, Florida
Temper: Sand. A ware which is intermediate between Glades Plain and Biscayne Plain in amount of sand used as an aplastic and in resultant hardness.
Distribution: Known from the Glades site in Palm Beach County, Florida and the Glades region of South Florida
Age: not a satisfactory time marker as Belle Glade Plain is probably found in all three of the major Glades periods. It is, however, more common to Glades II and III then Glades I.
Form: Forms are usually larger simple bowls with slightly in-curving rims. Specimens from the Manatee region of the Gulf Coast have a rounded or round-flat lip rather than the perfectly flat lip that is more common in the Glades area proper.
Decoration: undecorated
Jim Tatum collection
RESEARCH: Caldwell and Waring did not name this type at the Deptford site. While never being formally named, the name was used to refer to Middle Woodland period plain pottery that appeared. Williams suggests that the Franklin Plain name was originally used.[i] The name refers to plain pottery in association with Deptford sites across the southeastern U.S. The Deptford name originates from the Deptford site in Chatham County, Georgia
TEMPER: Fine Sand was used for tempering.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface is without decoration.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels are usually pots with sub-conoidal or truncated conical base. Rims are simple, unmodified and slightly out-curving. Bases are much thicker than the upper walls. Many basal structures include podal supports.
CHRONOLOGY: Deptford pottery is part of the Middle Woodland period. Associated points might include spike forms, Woodland Triangular, Baker’s Creek, Yadkin, Copena, Camp Creek, Greenville, and Swan Lake points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Deptford pottery is found over a wide range from the South Carolina coast across Georgia and parts of eastern Tennessee and eastern Alabama and northern Florida as far south as the Tampa Bay area. North of Georgia’s Fall Line it is known as Cartersville Check Stamped, but the pottery is the same as Deptford pottery.
[i] Williams, Mark. Georgia Indian Pottery web site
C.B. Moore
This vessel was recovered from a mound near Crystal River with Crystal River pottery of the same period.
Temper: Fine sand and mica with occasional coarser particles. Paste is compact, fine-grained, and slightly contorted. Color usually gray-black at core. Bowl or exterior surface buff. Sometimes sherds are fired through to buff color. Rarely they are gray-black all the way through.
Distribution: Found all along the northwest coast of Florida. Extends southward to Tampa Bay.
Age: Middle Woodland, Santa Rosa-Swift Creek period
Form: Sherds suggest pots with slightly converged or flared orifices and possibly, jars with short, flared collars. There are some vessels illustrated by more which may belong to this type. These include: a long-collared jar; a pot with slightly flared orifice; a composite-silhouette insert jar-bowl; and a short-collared jar with lobes. Rims are in slanted, interned with a slight recur, and out flared. Many are the end near the orifice. The general confirmation of the lip is either around-pointed or flat. The distinguishing feature of the type is this galloping or notching on the top of the lip. This varies from widely spaced smooth scallops, whose crests are separated by 1 to 2 cm, to narrow deep notches, measuring as little as 5 mm from the crest to crest. Sub conical tube flat and round basis tetrapod will supports are identical with those found on Swift Creek complicated stamped early variety. Supports are arranged in a square and our tier-shaped and solid. They range in height from 1.5 cm to barely visible nodes; in diameter they range from 1 to 3 cm. Spacing varies from over 6 cm to less than 3 cm. When supports are Kerr on a vessel of markedly subcoidal form a little right T or platform is formed on the base.
Decoration: Vessel surfaces are plain.
Gordon R. Willey (1949)
RESEARCH: John Goggin originally named this type from sites in south Florida in 1939.[i] Willey further discussed the type in 1949. Goggin’s research was in south Florida. Willey discussed it from sites in the Manatee region including Sarasota, Florida. The name initially applied to all plain, undecorated pottery in south Florida until certain other plain types were identified.
TEMPER: Sand tempering was used in both research areas.
SURFACE DECORATION: Most vessels in south Florida were simple bowls with in-curving rims.
VESSEL FORMS: Most vessels in south Florida were simple deep or shallow bowls with in-curving rims.
CHRONOLOGY: This is Early Woodland pottery dating to the Glades I period, dating between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500. Willey pointed out that because these plain pottery vessels continued into much later periods, they are not a good time indicator. Associated point types might include Bone and Gar Scale points, shark’s teeth, and sting ray barb points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type is found from the Manatee region southward.
[i] Goggin, John M. A ceramic sequence in South Florida. New Mexico Anthropology, vol. 3, pp.36-40
Glades Tooled bowl found by Mr. Hutchens along the Florida Keys
RESEARCH: This type was mentioned and illustrated by Bert Mowers in 1975,[i] but was probably named by John Goggin. This type was present in its highest numbers at the 0-6 inch level of the Bishops Head site near Miami, Florida.
TEMPER: Sand was used as temper in this and most south Florida pottery types.
SURFACE DECORATION: The body of the vessel is plain with a ramped or “pie crust” like rim treatment. Some examples have nodes just under the rim and have been referred to as Glades Noded. Some rim notching is further impressed with a small tool or with the finger.
VESSEL FORMS:These vessels are an extremely shallow skillet-like bowl, perhaps used for preparing a kind of flat bread.
CHRONOLOGY: Glades tooled pottery appeared at the end of the Glades IIIa period or at the beginning of the Glades IIIb period sometime around A.D. 1400. Associated point types might include Bone and Gar Scale points, shark’s teeth, and sting ray barb points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type seems to be limited to the Glades region of southern Florida.
[i] Mowers, Bert, Prehistoric Indian Pottery in South Florida, copyright Bert Mowers, 1975, p.41
Wiseman (1992)
RESEARCH: This type was discussed by Brent Weisman in 1992.[i] Weisman’s research was done at the Fig Springs mission site in Columbia County, Florida.
TEMPER: Crushed shell was used as temper in this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration on this type was plain with a notched appliqué strip added along the rim. A similar strip of notched or pinched strip may also appear along the shoulder of the jar. One example also included a strap handle fastened just below the lip.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms for this type were jars with constricted necks, flaring rims and well defined shoulders.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Spanish Mission period between A.D. 1550 and 1650. This type might be associated with Kaskaskia points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The Goggin series of pottery seems to be localized to the Fig Springs Mission site except for a few unnamed shell-tempered sherds at the Fox Pond site in Alachua County, Florida.
[i] Weisman, Brent, Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier. University Press of Florida, 1992, p.138, 203
Florida Museum of Natural History
RESEARCH: This pottery was named and described by John Goggin. Bert Mowers further described the type in 1975.[i] The research done by Goggin at the Goodland Point site on Key Marco in 1949 produced 248 sherds of Goodland Plain pottery.
TEMPER: Mowers described the temper as “rounded sand grains, cemented by a reddish colored clay matrix. The type is distinguished by its reddish color, varying from tan to dark brown, but is typically brick red. Sherds are softer and thicker than Glades Plain pottery
SURFACE DECORATION: Many examples are plain as the name implies, but Mowers added that a few examples had been recovered with Key Largo or Gordons Pass Incised designs on them.
VESSEL FORMS: The known form is a simple bowl with simple a rounded rim.
CHRONOLOGY: Mowers’ mention of Gordons Pass and Key Largo decoration on this paste may suggest its existence from the late Glades I period (A.D. 500-750) until the Glades IIa period (A.D. 750-900). This type might be found with faunal and marine points and shell tools.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The distribution seems to cover all or most of the Glades region of south Florida.
[i] Mowers, Bert, Prehistoric Indian Pottery in South Florida, copyright Bert Mowers, 1975, p.44
private collection
RESEARCH: Brent Weisman named this type in 1992.[i] Weisman’s research was done at the Fig Springs site in north-central Florida.
TEMPER: This is a clay-tempered paste.
SURFACE DECORATION: All grog-tempered ware with a plain surface was classified as this type at the Fig Springs site.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms for this type include hemispherical bowls and jars with either a flaring rim or a straight neck. Rims on flaring rim jars may be folded or pinched. Strap and lug handles are known as well as a dipper form with a long handle.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery belongs to the Historic, Spanish mission period. Associated point types might include Mississippian Triangular or Pinellas points and Ichetucknee points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This is Lamar Bold Incised, but in a Spanish mission context, and perhaps only at the Fig Springs site.
[i] Wiseman, Brent, Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier. University Press of Florida, 1992, p.138, 203
Gordon R. Willey (1949)
Temper: sand and medium-sized grit particles and what appears to be crushed Clay. In general, tampering material coarser than in previous periods. Paste is sometimes fine and compact but more often is course, lumpy and contorted. Paste cores are usually gray; fired surfaces are often whitish buff, buff, or reddish buff.
Distribution: most common in the Northwest from Pensacola to St. Mark’s and inland as far as the Tallahassee section and well up the Apalachicola River system. Rarely found in central coast or Manatee regions where it is replaced by Pinellas plain.
Age: Middle to Late Mississippian, Ft. Walton period. Continues into Leon-Jefferson period
Form: vessels tend to be larger than in earlier Gulf Coast periods. The casuela bowl,, collard globular bowl, globular bowl with flared orifice, open bowl and complete frog effigy bowl are all recorded. Casuela rims are in-turned. Collard ollas have straight, in slanting or out flared rims. Rims often thicken in near or at margin. Some rims are unmodified. Exterior rim folds, when they occur, are thin and flat but wide. They are often pinched or fluted. Sometimes a strap of clay was added to the exterior wall just below the rim, and this strip is pinched or fluted. Small applique nodes are often added along the rim exterior in place of fluting. Fingernail or long punctuations, placed in a row beneath the rim, or on rim exterior, are another variation. Lips are sometimes pointed or round-pointed, sometimes flat or squared. Most characteristic feature is a row of close-spaced notches which are always placed diagonally on the exterior edge of the lip. The base is rounded. Appendages are small vertically oriented lugs placed on the rim exterior. These may or may not have a projection above the lip. Both vertically placed loop and fix strap handles occur. The large ones are 6 to 8 cm long and over 2 cm wide. Small loop handles are 3 to 4 cm long and about 1 cm wide. Some handles have single, double, or triple nodes.
Decoration: surfaces are smooth but never achieve a polish. They are distinguished by temper particles, usually pieces of quartz, which extrude through onto the surface. In the case of the predominantly clay-tempered specimens, hard clay particles give the surface a course texture. Surfaces are commonly modeled, and vary in color depending upon the degree of firing.
Fernbank Museum
RESEARCH: This type had never been formally defined, even though it makes up a large part of any Lamar site. Caldwell discussed, but never formally described it and Robert Wauchope reportedly used the name Lamar Plain Smoothed which might be the same, but it remained unnamed until Brent Wiseman defined it in 1992.[i] Wiseman’s research was done at the Fig Springs Mission site in Columbia County, Florida.
TEMPER: The distinguishing trait of this type was the coarse grit particles used as temper in its paste and its smooth exterior surface as well as the decorated rims common to this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: This is smooth and well made plain pottery. Rim fragments make the plain sherds easier to identify as rims have an appliqué strip that is pinched or punctated with reed.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels are jar forms that are slightly constricted below the orifice. Bases are rounded. Rims are folded or an appliqué strip is added and pinched or crimped.
CHRONOLOGY: Lamar pottery dates to the Late Mississippian, Lamar period in Georgia, but Lamar is contemporary with Fort Walton pottery. Along the coast of Georgia, Lamar (Irene) stamped pottery continued longer. Florida Gulf coast occurrences are in the Safety Harbor periods. Related point types are the Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Lamar Complicated Stamped is found throughout most of Georgia and into adjacent Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. Similar types are seen in North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. In Florida it occurs as far south as Tampa Bay, but these occurrences may be only the result of trade. Eastern extensions in Florida are not well known but probably also occurs there only as trade if at all.
[i] Wiseman, Brent, Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier. University Press of Florida, 1992, p.197
a. Florida Museum of Natural History b. Jim Tatum collection
RESEARCH: H.G. Smith named this type in 1948 and Gordon Willey discussed it in 1949.[i] Research on this type was done in Jefferson County, Florida.
TEMPER: This is a sand and grit-tempered ware with a compacted paste and a hard surface.
SURFACE DECORATION: This pottery has a plain, undecorated surface.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms are similar to those of the Ocmulgee Fields complex of Georgia. The most common shape is a shallow bowl with an in-curved, straight, or flaring rim. The lip is flat or rounded and a rounded, flat or annular base. Other forms are the plate, bottle, casuela bowl, lugged shallow bowl, and European-influenced pitcher shape.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Historic period dating from the Leon-Jefferson period. Associated point types include Pinellas and Ichetucknee points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type is known from Leon and Jefferson counties, Florida.
[i] Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.491
a. Lloyd Schroder collection, b. C.B. Moore
RESEARCH: John Goggin described this type in 1948 and again in 1952.[i] Goggin’s research was focused along the St. Johns and Oklawaha River basins. He also took into account the examples of this type recovered by C.B. Moore from this same region (left).
TEMPER: Diatomaceous earth served as temper in this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: Vessels have broad folded rims, often decorated with cut out geometrical designs. This type is perhaps related to some Weeden Island plain designs, but with much broader folded rims.
VESSEL FORMS: All known vessels are large globular bowls with slightly constricted openings. Vessels have broad folded rims with rounded lips and rounded bottoms.
CHRONOLOGY: Goggin assigned this type to the Middle Woodland, St. Johns 1a period. Associated points include Woodland Triangular, Duval, Jackson, and Taylor points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Oklawaha Plain pottery occurs sporadically within the St. Johns and Oklawaha River basins.
[i] Goggin, John M., Space and Time Perspective in Northern St. Johns Archaeology, Florida, Yale University Publications in Anthropology No. 47, p.103, 1952
a. Lloyd Schroder collection b. The Florida Anthropologist
Temper: plant fiber, possibly Spanish moss, which on firing burnt out leaving a characteristic honeycomb appearance. Later forms of the ware often have quartz sand as an added a plastic, and some examples tend toward chalky where St. John’s series in texture.
Distribution: this pottery is most often found insights on the St. Johns River above Palatka, Florida, but occurs sporadically on the coast.
Age: late archaic, it’s temporal position is the orange period.
Form: the rim is usually simple and straight sided with a rounded or slightly flat lit. A log is rarely found on the rim; it is an outward rounded extension of the lip. The base is normally flat and unmarked but a few shirts show impressions of twined and plated textiles.
Decoration: the surface is often well smooth, but normally has a vermeil killer appearance due to fiber strand holes. The interior sometimes exhibits pronounced tooling marks.
Donated by Paleo Enterprises
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey defined this type in 1949 from his work in sites along the Central Gulf Coast and the Manatee region of Florida.[i]
TEMPER: The paste of this type is like that of all St. Johns ware with microscopic sponge spicules (spores) inherent within the paste that served as temper. The surface is usually gray or buff with a polished finish.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface is usually polished, but plain.
VESSEL FORMS: Known forms are flattened-globular bowls, deep open bowls, cylindrical beakers. Rims have exterior folds with ovate or triangular rim projections. Lips are usually rounded with occasional use of triangular punctuations on lip or rim projections.
CHRONOLOGY: The type belongs to the Middle and Late Woodland, Weeden Island I and II periods, but was more common in the latter period. Related point types include Duval, Pinellas, Taylor, Florida Copena, Jackson, Tallahassee, and Leon points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type is known from the Central Coast and Manatee regions of Florida. It also extends eastward into peninsular Florida as a minority type.
[i] Willey, Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.446
a. Florida Museum of Natural History b. donated by Paleo Enterprises
Temper: heavily tempered with find two large limestone lumps. These often leach out leaving a large holes in surface. Paste texture is course. Color ranges from gray to tan or black. Fire clouded. Surfaces poorly smoothed and uneven.
Distribution: the southwestern part of central Florida area may be the hearth of this type, but it also extends out to the central Gulf Coast.
Age: middle to late Woodland, Weeden island I and II. Possibly has an even greater time range.
Form: open and slightly constricted bowls with unmodified rims.
Decoration: surfaces are poorly smooth and uneven, but otherwise plain.
Temper: crushed live shell. There is also a little sand and grit. Sometimes compact base texture; sometimes laminated and controlled. Paste Core is usually gray and surfaces usually buff or red-buff. In some cases pottery was fired gray-black throughout.
Distribution: most common in extreme western and of Northwest Florida, but it is found in small quantities as far east and south as Tampa Bay. Probably very common in South Alabama.
Age: middle Mississippian, Ft. Walton period. Also found as a minority type in safety Harbor sites.
Form: forms undoubtedly comparable to those of the Fort Walton series. Rim is usually unmodified except for an occasional heavy, round exterior fold. Lips are from flat to round-pointed. Bases were probably rounded.appendages were small vertical loop handles and ornamental nodes beneath the rent.
Decoration: surfaces were probably smoothed and polished before erosion. Most specimens are pitted as a result of the temper particles leaching out. Several of the black or gray-black sherds have retained a polish, on pitted surface. Color varies according to firing.
donated by Paleo Enterprises
Temper: Sand and lumps of crushed limestone. The paste is black or gray at the core. The surface color is usually black or gray although sometimes a whitish buff. Tooling marks are evident on both surfaces. In general better made and smoother then glades ware.
Distribution: known only from Perico Island.
Age: middle Woodland, Deptford and/or Santa Rosa-Swift Creek periods of Northwest Florida.
Form: large simple bowls with in curve the Rims. Rims are unmodified and lips are rounded or round-pointed with slight interior bevel.
Decoration: undecorated.
Florida Museum of Natural History
Temper: ranges from fine sand through medium-course sand to a Clay, possibly temperless paste. Depending upon the aplastic, paste ranges from granular and compact to course contorted and laminated. The latter is crumbly and fragile. Although lacking in temper particles, there is no resemblance to the smooth, soft, even Biscayne ware. Base color is usually Brown.
Distribution: Manatee in central coast regions. Makes stand further north than safety Harbor incised.
Age: late Mississippian to early historic, safety Harbor period
Form: large open bowls with slightly in curve for Rams, Co. Z bowls, collard globular all was, and pot forms. Rams sometimes folded on exterior. Use of nodes and pinched punctuations on or below the rim. Characteristically has deep to slight indentations, crimping, or taking on exterior edge of the lip. Bases are probably rounded. Appendages are small, vertically placed loop handles with nodes at top, crude effigy (?) Handles with nodes, large ovate horizontal rim projections.
Decoration: surface is rough and often cracks easily. Lumps of clay may extrude. Color is gray to brown tube off. Poorly smoothed on both surfaces with tooling marks in evidence.
RESEARCH: This type was defined by Hale G. Smith in 1948 and commented on by John Goggin in 1952.[i]
TEMPER: John Goggin stated that this type is usually tempered with sand in Florida, but in the area of St. Augustine it may be sand or limestone or a combination of the two. Mark Williams reported that the same material, called Altamaha in Georgia, is tempered with grit.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface of this type is plain and smooth. Some smoothing marks may be visible. In limestone-tempered examples from the St. Augustine area, pitting may occur on the surface from leaching limestone particles.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include large, deep, round-bottom jars with a constricted area below a flaring rim. Spanish “soup plate” forms are also known. A Spanish type ring foot is found on some forms.
CHRONOLOGY: Smith (1948) gives a date of 1686 for simple stamping with other forms of decoration peaking sometime before that period (Goggin). The related point types are brass Kaskaskia points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found in late 17th century mission sites near St. Augustine and northward along the Florida and Georgia coastline. It also occurs in north central Florida and near Tallahassee in the region of the Spanish mission system. Plain ware is less common that stamped ware.
[i] Goggin, John M., Space and Time Perspective in Northern St. Johns Archaeology, Florida, Yale University Press, 1952, p.110
a. The Florida Anthropologist b. Jim Tatum collection c. Lloyd Schroder Collection
Temper: diatomaceous Earth with a soft, chalky texture so that theware can be recognized by feel alone.some of the earlier examples contain fiber temper and apparently represent an evolution from late orange plane form. Other inclusions are rarely a few small shell fragments, probably accidental, and small red to brown colored inclusions of the same texture as the remainder of the paste. Slender spicules, perhaps from sponges, are also rarely included in the paste. Of more importance is an increasing amount of sand sometimes found in examples of this type from late St. Johns II sites.often it is in such quantity that the insureds merged into a great-tempered series.
Distribution: St. John’s plane pottery is found in all parts of the region as well as in much of peninsular Florida.
Age: early Woodland to his story times, orange period to this St. Augustine period
Form: Bulls are the most common vessel form. They are usually large, very commonly with straight out sloping sides although examples with constricted mouth are not uncommon. Small necked, pair-shaped jars may be an early form; at least the form appears more often in St. John’s I sites, but jars with constricted next and flaring orifices occur later in St. John’s II times. In both of the St. Johns periods small vessels of unusual shape and variable Rams, flanged or pointed, for example, occur. Gordon forms are not uncommon and are perhaps most abundant in the St. Johns I period. During this same horizon basil supports or feet were in style. These generally numbered for, but if you tripod vessels, and one which can only be described as bipod, are known. Feet varied greatly in form from those which appear to be mere pinching-up of the surface to well modeled supports. The boat vessel with square cut and blogs is noteworthy in that it appears in greatest frequency in the Southeast in this area, where it ranges from St. John’s a I into St. John’s II times. Eccentric forms, not considered elsewhere, include flanged earthenware tubs, school-shaped objects, and four-legged miniature stools.
Decoration: the vessels are not decorated by any surface treatment although certain vessels with sculpturing, modeling, and appendages are included in this category. Where to draw the line between St. John’s plane and effigy forms is not clear.
Temper: seems to be Clay; very little sand or grit. Some inclusion of very fine fibers. Paste is very lumpy, angular, and contorted. Great core and light buff fired surfaces.
Distribution: only from a single site in wall Kulick County, Florida on the Northwest Florida coast.
Age: middle Woodland, surface associations and conditions at the site where this material was found suggest that it is either Deptford or Santa Rosa-Swift Creek related.
Form: no exact data, although body sure words suggest large vessels.
Decoration: surfaces are smooth but tend to be bumpy. Both surfaces, particularly the exterior, are characterized by large pockets where pieces have broken out. Interiors usually black, but exteriors are a chalky buff which is also very fire-modeled. Small fiber vermiculation’s on surface are common.
C.B. Moore
Temper: find sand with only rare coarser particles in the form of grip or lumps of clay. Micah is observed in most shirts. Paste texture is granular. Some tendency, occasionally observed, toward lamination and contortion of paste, although this does not affect the hard, compact quality of the paste. May be oxidized to buff color throughout; may have buff surfaces and great core; may have only in exterior above surface; or may be great-black throughout. Surface color varies according to the firing. Light buff, red-buff, great, and mottled black are the most common. Fire clouding his frequent. Both surfaces well smooth polished.
Distribution: the entire Florida Gulf Coast area.
Age: middle and late Woodland, Weeden island I and II periods.
Form: Includes medium-deep, hemispherical and shallow open bowls. Bowls with in-curving sides vary from those which are only slightly in-curved to others which are flattened-globular. Some flattened-globular bowls are collared. There are also jars, simple and short-collared, long collared, and with square collars. There are, in addition, a number of unusual-shaped vessels these are nearly always found as mortuary ware, some of which were manufactured with holes and were obviously for ceremonial purposes only. These forms include multi-compartment trays, double bowls, single-globed jars, double-globe jars, gourd-effigy bowls with singular lateral handle, various forms of bowls and jars with a fixed effigy figures or adornments, semi-effigy bowls and jars, human-figure vessels, globular bowls with multiple body lobes, and miscellaneous eccentric shapes. Rims are commonly thickened at or near the vessel orifice. This thickening is accomplished by both exterior, and, occasionally, interior foals. Sometimes there is no fold but the rim is, nevertheless, thickened. On the conventional shapes, rims are in curved (globular bowls) and out-slanted (open bowls). Occasionally globular bowl rims are sharply recurved. Rim folds are rounded, rectangular and triangular. The fold, or thickened margin, is often underlined with a single in size line. Occasionally there are two in size lines with one in circling the inside of the fold. Lips are both flat and rounded. Many of the folded or thickened rims are babbled either to the in’s side or outside. Incised or linear punctate lines on top of the lip may occur. Bases are both rounded and flat. Appendages are rim projections, of which there are usually four tool vessel. These may be triangular or ovate-triangular.sometimes they extend out horizontally; in other instances they are slanted upward at a 45° angle from the plane of the vessel mouth. They vary greatly as to size, some extending only a centimeter or so from the vessel rim while others project three or 4 cm.
Decoration: vessel surfaces are plain and undecorated.
