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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.
RESEARCH: This type was defined by Wesley Hurt in 1975.[i] Hurt’s research was done on sites in east-central Alabama as part of the Walter F. George Reservoir survey. The type was named after the Abercrombie Mound site in Alabama.
TEMPER: Sand or grit was used as temper in this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration includes bold incising that is often curvilinear and may include figures or symbols related to the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or may be a series of hash marks below the rim along the vessel shoulders. Punctations are often used as fillers between incised lines.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel types include casual bowls with collared rims. Rims are angled outward. Lips are rounded and may be notched or plain.
CHRONOLOGY: This type is part of the Late Mississippian period.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found along the central Chattahoochee River Valley, both in Georgia and Alabama.
[i] Hurt, Wesley R. Jr. The Preliminary Archaeological Survey of the Chattahoochee Valley Area in Alabama. In Archaeological Salvage in the Walter F. George Basin of the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, edited by David L. DeJarnette. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1975
RESEARCH: Hale G. Smith (1948) named this type from sites in Jefferson County, Florida.
TEMPER: Sand or grit was the two tempers used.
SURFACE DECORATION: The incising consisted of 2 to 5 parallel lines forming chevrons or other rectilinear and curvilinear designs. The designs sometimes formed loops. Sometimes the incising was filled with punctations placed below the lip of the vessel. Incised lines are made around the rim. Rims are usually incurvate with lips that are flat or rounded. Lugs along the lip have been noted.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels were shallow bowls and casuela bowls. The rims of the vessels were incurved with flat or rounded lips.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery was made during the Leon and Jefferson periods of the AD 1600’s. Associated artifacts might include Mississippi Triangular and Kaskaskia points.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: Most often this pottery is recovered from sites in the Tallahassee area in northwestern Florida, Leon and Jefferson counties. It might also be present in the southernmost counties of southwestern Georgia.
RESEARCH: David Chase defined this type in 1959.[i] This type was named after the Averett site in Georgia.
TEMPER: This is a grit-tempered pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Incising on this type occurs along the rim and shoulder areas. Designs include jab-and-drag punctation-like lines, independently incised arches, ladder designs, parallel lines near the rim, and diagonal incised lines along the shoulders of the vessel.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms are globular jars with incurved rims or semi-conoidal jars with out-curving rims. Lips may be pinched, rounded or squared.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Late Woodland, Averett phase.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Distribution of Averett pottery runs from western central Georgia to eastern central Alabama along the central Chattahoochee River valley.
Chase, David. The Averett Culture. Coweta Memorial Association Papers 1. Columbus, Georgia.
RESEARCH: This type was named by Gordon Willey in 1949.[i] Willey based his study on sites along the northwest Florida coast.
TEMPER: Fine sand was used for tempering. Mica is present in most of the paste.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consisted of medium and fine incised lines made on soft, unfired surfaces. Parallel incised lines were placed vertically or diagonally and arranged in simple rows, herringbone fashion, or in nested triangles. There is a variation of the latter where alternate triangles are filled with horizontally placed lines. Decoration is often set off, above and below, by incised lines. Decoration is usually confined to a band beneath the rim on the upper one third of the vessel. Sometimes on beaker forms, decoration extends from the rim to the base.
VESSEL FORMS: Known forms include flattened-globular bowls, collard globular bowls, simple and collard jars and beakers. Rims are in-curving, and direct or out-slanting. Exterior folds are common. When not folded, the rims may be slightly thickened.
CHRONOLOGY: Carrabelle Incised pottery is assigned to the Late Woodland, Weeden Island II period.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Carrabelle pottery is primarily found along the Florida golf Coast, but can also be found in southwestern and central Georgia and southern Alabama.
Willey, Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.422
RESEARCH: This type was defined by Wesley Hurt in 1975.[i] Professional archaeologists from SEAC met in 1968 and dropped this type name from use. Hurt’s research was based on his survey of sites located in the east-central Alabama area of the Walter F. George Reservoir. It was named for Columbia, Alabama in Houston County. This is nearly the same as a Lamar open bowl treatment without complicated stamping on the bottom.
TEMPER: Grit or sand was used as the tempering material for this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration, limited to the inside of the flaring rim of vessels, was both curvilinear and rectilinear in form.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels were bowls with flaring rims. (The above, lower left, illustration by C.B. More is from the Alabama River near Horseshoe Bend).
CHRONOLOGY: This type has been assigned to the Middle Mississippian period.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type has been recovered from the central Chattahoochee River to Montgomery, Alabama and the Alabama River. It is also found sporadically within interior Georgia.
[i] Hurt, Wesley R. Jr. The Preliminary Archaeological Survey of the Chattahoochee Valley Area in Alabama. In Archaeological Salvage in the Walter F. George Basin of the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, edited by David L. DeJarnette. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1975
RESEARCH: The research of this type has a long history, perhaps beginning with Gordon Willey and R.B. Woodbury in 1942[i] and their report on Lake Jackson Plain pottery. Later William Sears (1967) defined the Lake Jackson type from examples recovered at the Tierra Verde site in Florida. The Cool Branch type was recognized by Harold Hushner at the Cool Branch site in Quitman County, Georgia. Finally, Frank & Gail Schnell with Vernon J. Knight, in 1981[ii]seem to have cemented this type together, both from Florida where this type is known as Lake Jackson Incised or Plain and from the Cool Branch site in Georgia. In short, Schnell and Knight classified the primary type as Lake Jackson Decorated with three sub-variants: 1. Cool Branch, having cascading arches; 2. Lake Jackson “A”, formerly known as Lake Jackson Incised (see under Lake Jackson ”A” Incised), with parallel lines on the vessel collar; and 3. Lake Jackson “B” or Plain without decoration (see under Lake Jackson “B” Plain), but having handles that fit the type.
TEMPER: Tempering materials including sand, grit, and perhaps clay were used and were coarser than in previous periods.
SURFACE DECORATION: The Cool Branch variant decoration consists of from 1 to 3 cascading arches along the shoulder of the vessel just below the rim. The arches were either punctated, decorated with “pumpkin” lobbing, incised lines, incised lines with short eyelash-like lines above or below them, zoned punctations above or between incised lines, or occasional a bulging or lobed collar. Sears drew the distinction between Lake Jackson pottery and the Cool Branch type in that the Lake Jackson type had parallel incised lines along the collar while the Cool Branch type collars were plain, however, at the Cool Branch site, this did not hold true. Strap handles are present from 2 to 8 in number with some variation in form both with and without lobes as illustrated above.
VESSEL FORMS: All vessels seem to be large to moderately large globular jars with collars and 2 to 8 strap handles in even numbers.
CHRONOLOGY: Willey suggested that this pottery extends from the Fort Walton period, dating from A.D. 1200 until the early Leon-Jefferson period at about A.D. 1400.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Schnell, Knight and Schnell suggest that this type follows the distribution of the Fort Walton pottery from Florida’s Manatee region to southern Alabama and as far west as the Alabama River and along the Florida Gulf Coast to Pensacola, Florida.
[i] Willey, Gordon R., and R.B. Woodbury. A chronological outline for the northwest Florida coast. American Antiquity, vol. 7, pp.232-254
[ii] Schnell, Frank, Jim Knight and Gail Schnell. Cemochechobee: Archaeology of a Mississippian Ceremonial Center on the Chattahoochee River. University of Florida Press, Gainesville 1981, p.163-173
RESEARCH: Tomas M.N. Lewis and Madeline Kneberg named the Dallas pottery types in 1946.[i] Lewis and Kneberg did their research on Hiwassee Island, Tennessee. This type was named for the old town of Dallas, Tennessee, now at the bottom of Chickamauga Lake.
TEMPER: Fine to medium particles of crushed shell was used as temper in this type. Paste color ranges from light to dark gray, light and dark brown, and brick red.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consists of narrow incising that includes hachured triangles or opposing arches along the rim. Interlocking scrolls and other southern motifs were also used. Incised designs were also intermingled with punctuations on some vessels.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include shallow open bowls and small globular jars.
CHRONOLOGY: Dallas pottery belongs to the Late Mississippi period associated with Dallas and Mouse Creek phases in Tennessee and the Barnett phase in northwestern Georgia.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Dallas pottery is found in eastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, western South Carolina and northeastern Alabama.
Lewis, Thomas M.N. and Madeline Kneberg. Hiwassee Island An Archaeological Account of Four Tennessee Indian Peoples, University of Tennessee Press, 1946
Fernbank Museum of Natural History collection
RESEARCH: Named after the Etowah site by Robert Wauchope in 1966. This type is known from the Etowah Mound complex located on the Etowah River in northwestern Georgia, but was spread over most of Georgia and surrounding areas by the Etowah people.
TEMPER: This is a grit-tempered pottery type.
SURFACE DECORATION: Incisions are relatively wide and shallow, and designs are usually undulating lines. Also fluting, modeling, punctuating, and appliqués sometimes appear with the incising.
VESSEL FORMS: A number of vessel forms are known, the most common of which are: rounded bowls with in-sloping rims, bowls with vertical rounded sides, bowls with out-curved and straight or out-curved rims, jars with pronounced collars, cylindrical beakers, angled bowls, globular jars with flaring necks, plates or shallow dishes, hooded water bottles, and human effigy vessels.
CHRONOLOGY: The Etowah type belongs to the Middle Mississippian, Etowah period. Associated point types might include Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type originated at the Etowah site in northwestern Georgia but was spread in small quantities by the Etowah people throughout Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and probably western North and South Carolina.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey named this type in 1949.[i] Willey’s research focused on sites within the Florida Gulf Coast.
TEMPER: Fine sand was used for tempering this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consists of lines and punctuations incised into the soft surface of vessel. Lines are deep, wide, and usually rectangular in cross-section. Large round or square punctuations were most often used, however hollow read punctuation sometimes used. The design elements consisted of bullets, interlocked scrolls, running scrolls, circles, tri-foil figures, concentric forms, S-shaped and reverse-S figures, rectilinear stepped figures, pendant loops, and triangles. These elements were usually repeated around the vessel in a connected pattern. Punctations or incised lines were used as filler for both background or as designs. Designs are usually limited to the upper part of the bowl on the vessel exterior. Interior decoration can occur on the upper surfaces of the rim appendages or projections on large open bowls.
VESSEL FORMS: Forms are shallow bowls, casuela bowls, colored globular bowls, short collared jars, beaker-bowls, bottles, gourd-effigy forms, and flattened-globular bowls. Most rims are thickened. Long, thin folds are common. These are usually underlined within incised line. Lips are rounded-pointed. Closely spaced notches are placed diagonally on the exterior margin of the lip. Bases are rounded. Appendages are horizontal rim projections or effigy figures. Small vertical lugs are sometimes placed just below the lip or exterior.
CHRONOLOGY: Fort Walton pottery has been assigned to the Middle Mississippian period.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Distribution of this type ranges along the northwest coast of Florida with inland extension for at least 100 miles. Distribution unrecorded along Alabama coast and interior Alabama but probably occurs in these areas.
Gordon R., Archaeology of the Florida Gulf Coast, Bureau of American Ethnology Smithsonian Institution, 1949, p.460
RESEARCH: Chester DePratter named this type after the Irene site, 9Ch1, located in the northern portion of Savannah, Georgia that was excavated in the late 1930s.
TEMPER: Like Lamar pottery, Irene pottery is tempered with coarse grit.
SURFACE DECORATION: In the Irene phase, designs are simple, usually including no more than 3 lines, and include concentric festoons, circles, guilloches, and swirls. Punctuations are rare. In the later Pine Harbor phase, designs become more complex and sometimes cover the entire exterior of the vessel. Designs include concentric circles, ovals and squares, scrolls and guilloches, interwoven with cross, hand, baton, and serpent motifs. Punctuations with incising are more common in the Pine Harbor and Altamaha phases than in the Irene phase.
VESSEL FORM: The following are vessel forms after Caldwell and Waring (1939). Known vessel forms include wide-mouthed bowls and globular jars with elongated necks. Rims are generally incurving or straight. Lips are rounded or square. Bases are rounded or flat.
CHRONOLOGY: This is an Early Lamar type that dates between 1300 and 1400 A.D. The type occurs in the Irene, Pine Harbor, and finally the Altamaha phase where it eventually ceased being used. Associated point types might include the Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville point types.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The Irene name is applied to this pottery along the Georgia and South Carolina coast. Further inland the Lamar name is applied to this same ware.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey named the Indian Pass Incised type in 1949. Willey’s research was based on sites along the Florida Gulf Coast.
TEMPER: Fine sand was used as temper for this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration on this type consisted of fine to medium incised lines made on soft unfired clay. The closely spaced lines give a “combed” appearance on many examples. Designs are sweeping curvilinear loops, whorls, and straight-line herringbone arrangements. The herringbone design is made up of a great many lines as opposed to the Carrabelle Incised type that has fewer lines.
VESSEL FORMS: Known forms are flattened-globular bowls, short collared jars, and tri-lobed jars.
CHRONOLOGY: This is a Late Woodland, Weeden Island related pottery. Associated point types might include Woodland Triangular and Duval spike or Leon points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found from the Florida Gulf Coast northward to southwestern Georgia and as far west as the Tombigbee River in southwestern Alabama.
RESEARCH: James Ford and Arthur Kelly recognized Lamar pottery in 1934, but in was not formally named until Jesse Jennings and Charles Fairbanks defined and named it in 1939. Willey discussed its presence in Florida in 1949.[i] The research of Ford and Kelly took place at the Lamar site in Bibb County, Georgia. Willey noted that the appearance of the type was only occasional in sites dating to the Leon-Jefferson period in north-central Florida.
TEMPER: This is a grit-tempered ware. The exterior surface is often dark gray to buff in color. The surface texture can be well smoothed, but may appear rough through erosion.
SURFACE DECORATION: Designs consist of broad, deep incised lines with hollow-reed punctations and occasional dot punctations. Dot punctations are more common in Georgia sites. Scrolls are most often combined with rectilinear designs with a row of reed punctations at the base of the incised designs. John Worth identified two varieties in north-central Florida; fine line incising is named Ocmulgee Fields, while bold incising is named the Columbia variant.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery dates to the Late Mississippian, Lamar period in Georgia. In Florida, it dates late in the Lamar period and relates to Leon-Jefferson pottery during the 16th and 17th century.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The Lamar pottery has a wide distribution stretching from South Carolina to Mississippi. No geographical description is given by John Worth for his Lamar Incised type other than the region of study within the Suwannee Valley region.
Jennings, Jesse and Charles Fairbanks. Pottery Type Descriptions. Southeastern Archaeological Conference Newsletter1(2).
