Menu
——–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.
RESEARCH: Goggin named this type in 1964 and Mowers later discussed in in 1975. Examples were taken from sites within the Glades region of southern Florida.
TEMPER: Sand was used for temper in this and most pottery types in southern Florida.
SURFACE DECORATION: The only know decoration consists of an incised looping line with stab-and-drag punctations just below lip.
VESSEL FORMS: Most Glades vessels are bowls with in-curving walls and rims.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery dates to the Glades I late period dating from A.D. 500 to 750. Associated points might include Bone points, Shark’s Teeth, Gar Scale points and Sting Ray Barb points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type was recovered from the Caloosahatchee and eastern Glades areas.
Temper: Sand
Distribution: Gulf Coast area of Florida; most common between Apalachicola River and Cedar Keys.
Age: Middle Woodland, Weeden Island I & II periods. This may be the first of the incised or punctated Weeden Island types.
Vessel forms: Globular bowl with flared orifice, flattened-globular bowl, short-coloared jar, and a jar with cambered rim. Direct and slightly incorving rims. Slightly thickened near margin. Thin, flat exterior fold common. Lips are flat-round to pointed-round.
Decoration: Designs are arranged in a field around the upper portion of the vessel below the rim. A good deal of variation as to kinds of punctations used. These variations tend to grade into each other. They are: Fingernail punctations placed longitudinally or aprallel to the vertical axis of the vessel; stick-made punctations, rectanguloid and trianguloid with considerable size range; round-bottomed dents or shallow stick punctations; hollow-reek punctations; and double-rowed fingernail punctations with paste slightly pinched and piled up near punctation. Field of punctation may be underlined with an incised line.
RESEARCH: John Goggin named this type at the Snapper Creek site near Miami, Florida and Bert Mowers discussed it in 1975.[i]
TEMPER: Sand was used in tempering this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration on this type consists of single or double rows of punctations along the rim of the vessel.
VESSEL FORMS: Most Glades region vessels were bowls with in-curving walls and rims
CHRONOLOGY: The Fort Drum types are an Early Woodland, Glades I period pottery, dating between 400 B.C. and A.D. 400. Associated points might include Bone points, Shark Teeth, Gar Scale and Sting Ray Barb points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The distribution of this type centers on the Miami and Broward County area of south Florida.
[i] Mowers, Bert, Prehistoric Indian Pottery in South Florida, copyright Bert Mowers, 1975
Temper: Fine quartz sand or diatomaceous eartth
Distribution: Gainesville, Florida and west to Cedar Key and south to Lake Tsala Apopka
Age: Late Woodland, Weeden Island II Period
Vessel forms: Simple hemispherical bowls with unmodified rims
Decoration:The design is a series of parallel horizontal and vertical punctated lines. The horizontal lines apparently completely encircle the vessel; and the vertical lines may radiate from the bottom of the vessel. In some cases rim and upper body of the vessel is decorated; in other cases the punctation apparently covers the whole vessel. All rims seem to have a clear space about 2 cm. wide below lip.
RESEARCH: This type was defined by John Goggin and later again described by Jerald Milanich. Brent Wiseman discussed this type in 1992 and expanded on its variations. [i] This type was named for Lochloosa Lake near Gainesville, Florida.
TEMPER: Particles of grit were used as temper in this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration for this type consists of randomly applied punctations over all or most of the surface. Wiseman identified two sub-types as variant Lochloosa, conforming to the description above and characterized by either random punctations or clusters of punctations with blank spaces in between. This type often shows evidence of dragging or brushing in the punctations or in the spaces between them. The second variant, Grassy Flats, has neither blank spaces nor drag-like brush strokes.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include only simple bowls.
CHRONOLOGY: This type seems to have appeared during the later part of the Suwannee Valley culture at about A.D. 1200 and lasted into the Spanish Mission period about A.D. 1550. Associated points are Ichetucknee and Kaskaskia points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type could be expected to have a slightly broader distribution from the southernmost counties of Georgia to Alachua County in north-central Florida.
[i] Wiseman, Brent, Excavations on the Franciscan Frontier. University Press of Florida, 1992, p.195
Temper: Diatomaceous earth
Distribution: central coast and Manatee regions of Florida. Also extends eastward into peninsular Florida as I minority type.
Age: Middle and Late Woodland, Weeden Island I and II, but more common in the latter period
Vessel forms: flattened-globular bowls, deep open bowls, cylindrical beakers. Rims have extended fold. Ovate and triangular rim projections. Lip usually rounded with occasional use of triangular plantations on the lip or rim projections.
Decoration: basically curvilinear and tends to emphasize contrastingly areas of plain the polished surface versus punctuated feilds. Design often brought out negatively by punk hating only the backgrounds. Continuous meanders, scrolls, lobate forms, leaf like forms, circles, and triangles are usual elements.these elements are outlined with lines of close-spaced punctuations and are often filled with close or wide-spaced punctuations. The various geometrical elements are usually connected by lines of fine punctuations integrating all parts of the design into an over-all composition. As in Weeden island incised, the bird idea may be expressed in a highly stylized and conventional eyes to form. Relief modeling and appliqué techniques are used to delineate effigy features, usually bird heads.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey defined this type from the Perico Island site near Tampa Bay, Florida.[i]
TEMPER: Lumps of crushed limestone were used as temper and appear abundant in the paste. The color is usually black or gray, but sometimes appears as a whitish buff.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration on this type appears as drag-and-jab punctuation that is deeply impressed. Punctations are elongated in form. The rim band is decorated with designs of opposed diagonal lines or sets of diagonal lines.
VESSEL FORMS: These vessels are bowls with in curved rims.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery belongs to the Middle Woodland period and appears coeval with Deptford pottery, but is definitely older than Weeden Island types. This type may cross-date with Glades I or II pottery in the Tampa Bay area. Related point types are Duval, Pinellas, Taylor, Jackson, and Tallahassee points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is known from the Perico Island site and the area of Tampa Bay, Florida.
[i] Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.365
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey defined this type from sites along the Florida Gulf Coast.[i]
TEMPER: This is sand-tempered pottery. The core is black, gray or dark brown in color while the surface is typically buff.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration on this pottery consists of drag-and-jab punctation in straight lines that form rectilinear chevron arrangements that are usually closely spaced. The punctations are often triangular in shape and cover the exterior of the vessel except for an undecorated rim space.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms for this type include beaker-bowls and flattened-globular bowls. Folded rims and triangular rim projections can be present.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery seems to have appeared during the Late Woodland to Early Mississippian, Weeden Island II period. Related point types include Pinellas, Duval, Leon, Copena, Sarasota, and Columbia points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is focused near Tampa Bay, but has been found in Central Gulf Coast of Florida as well.
[i] Willey, Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.441
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey name and defined this type in 1949 from sites along the Northwest Florida Coast. It is named for Santa Rosa County, Florida.
TEMPER: Willey indicated that this temper shared the same characteristics as the Alligator Bayou Stamped type that is tempered with ground clay (perhaps sherd fragments) or, in some cases, fine to medium sand. Clay-tempered sherds will have a lumpy surface. The color of the exterior surface varies from chalky white to buff or red-buff. The core tends to be gray or black.
SURFACE DECORATION: The decoration on this type consists of round-bottom incised lines and semi-hemispherical punctations. The decoration figures are both curvilinear and rectilinear incised designs with punctations used as filler. Decoration is usually confined to the top portion of the vessel. This type is very similar to the Troyville related Churupa Punctated type.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels of this type tend to be short-collared jars. Wimberly’s work in southwestern Alabama shows that globular bowls are also a part of the vessel form make up. The Alabama examples have a pseudo-rim area void of decoration and a line at the bottom of the decorated area. Wimberly also stated that some jars have an out-flaring rim.
CHRONOLOGY: Santa Rosa pottery belongs to the Middle Woodland period. Related point types include spike forms, Woodland Triangular, Baker’s Creek, and Copena points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The total range of distribution seems to include the western end of the Northwest Florida Coast and from Mobile Bay north to the lower Tombigbee and Alabama River basins.
RESEARCH: The St. Johns series of pottery was defined by John Goggin in 1952[i] from his work in sites along the St. Johns River, for which this series is named, and throughout south Florida.
TEMPER: St. Johns pottery is tempered with diatomaceous earth or soft silky clay that has microscopic fresh water sponge spicules in it that act as temper. The sherds of pottery have a soft, chalky texture, referred to as “chalky ware” as early as 1891, so that the ware can be recognized by feel alone. There was an increasing amount of sand in sherds of this type from late St. Johns II sites.
SURFACE DECORATION: This type is represented by only a few examples. The vessel rim is decorated by a single incised line and 1 to 3 lines of well spaced punctations. Several lines of punctuation are also found within an incised line. On one example, triple lines of punctuations formed a crude series of arcades on the body of the vessel. Other sherds of punctations may be parts of fields of punctation used in conjunction with incising as shown above (right).
VESSEL FORMS: Based on one complete specimen, the form is a deep jar.
CHRONOLOGY: This type apparently dates to the Late Woodland, St. Johns II period or possibly earlier. Related point types are Pinellas, Duval, Sarasota, Columbia and Leon points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: St. Johns pottery is found across most of Peninsular Florida. St. Johns Punctated is sporadically found throughout the area both on the coast and along the St. Johns River.
[i] Goggin, John M., Space and Time Perspective in Northern St. Johns Archaeology, Florida, Yale University Press, 1952, p.90-105
Temper: Find sand with only rare coarser particles in the form of grit or lumps of clay. Micah is observed in most shirts.
Distribution: the Florida golf Coast but with greater frequency of occurrence in the central coast and Manatee regions than in the Northwest.
Age: is largely a Weeden island to type, although it occurs in Weeden island one.
Vessel forms: flattened-globular bowl most common. Sample jars, open bowls, short-colored jars, cylindrical beakers.
Decoration: Round or small triangular punctuations impressed into soft clay of vessels before firing. Use of deep, rounded punctuations, large triangular punctuations, and hollow-read punctuations for the termination of segmentation of lines. Occasional use of fine incision but only a subsidiary element in the punctuation design. Designs are basically curvilinear and tend to emphasize contrasting areas of plain polished surface versus punctated fields. Designs often brought out negatively by punctuating only the backgrounds. Continuous meanders, scrolls, Lobe forms, leaf-like forms, circles, and triangles our usual elements. These elements are outlined with lines of close- temptations and are often filled with close or wide-spaced punctations. The various geometrical elements are usually connected by lines of punctuations, integrating all parts of the design into an over-all composition. As in Weeden Island Incised, the bird idea may be expressed in a highly stylized and conventionalized form. Relief modeling and applique techniques are used to delineate effigy features, usually bird heads. Conception of design is excellent and seems well confined within the limits of a clearly understood style. Execution is sure and displays a graceful lightness of touch.
