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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.
RESEARCH: Macon Thick pottery was defined by Jesse Jennings and Charles Fairbanks in the SEAC Newsletter, Vol.2, No.2 in the March 1940 issue. The type was named for the Macon Plateau and mound site.
TEMPER: Most of these vessels were coil made as demonstrated along the coil lines, but some were hand molded. The clay paste was tempered with moderate to fine grit that was present in small to moderate amounts in the paste. Course clay was also frequently present as a tempering agent. The texture of the paste was even and fine. The surface colors were buff, red or brown, perhaps because of weathering, with little difference in core colors.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface was fairly smooth and matte with some temper showing. Decoration technique included broad, deep incising with grooves that were triangular in cross section. Beyond incising, decoration also included cord marking, complicated stamping, punctation and plain surfaces. Incised lines were simple and widely spaced and followed patterns that were diagonal, vertical, horizontal, curvilinear, and combinations of diagonal and vertical lines. Punctation was done in combination with incising and cord marking. Cord impressions were vertical. Some simple and concentric circle stamping appears. Decoration was limited to the surfaces of the sides of the vessels while lips were left undecorated.
VESSEL FORM: Vessels were small so that every sherd had curvature. The form was a cylindrical jar with a small orifice and straight to slightly convex walls. The height of the vessel was about twice the length of the base. Bases were flat, rarely rounded and possibly flared and open. The vessel walls were 6 to 20mm thick at the lip and 13 to 20mm in the body. No appendages are known. Rims were vertical and not differentiated from the walls. Lips were frequently surged at right angles, frequently rounded, some flattened or expanded and flattened.
CHRONOLOGY: Sherds of this type were found at the lowest levels of the Macon Plateau and were Early Mississippian pottery. Associated points include Madison and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Examples of this type were recovered from the Macon Plateau and Brown’s Mount sites.
RESEARCH: This type was first reported by Mark Williams at the Joe Bell site (9Mg28) and was formally recognized by Marvin Smith at the Dyar site (9Ge5). The type was named for Morgan County, Georgia. The Bell site is located at the junction of the Apalachee and Oconee Rivers and is now under Lake Oconee.
TEMPER: The type is tempered with grit
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface is designed with cross-hatched fine incised designs, which are frequently zoned. Incised designs are usually found on the necks of the vessels in alternating patterns of zones of cross-hatched lines followed by zones of parallel lines vertical to the neck of the vessel. Incised lines are fine, but deep and bold in execution. The designs were made when the clay of the vessel was still plastic, forming rough edges around the incisions, thus making this type easily distinguishable from Lamar Bold Incised.
VESSEL FORM: Vessel forms are globular bodied jars with straight necks. Rims are usually decorated with folded and hollow cane punctated rim strips. A form with four castellations or peaks has also been observed.
CHRONOLOGY: This is a Late Mississippian, Lamar period pottery. Associated points include Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The distribution of this type is contained within the Oconee River drainage area of Georgia’s Piedmont region.
RESEARCH: Nunnally pottery was named and defined by Frank & Gail Schnell and Vernon J. Knight in 1981. The research of Schnell and Knight was done at the Cemochechobee site in Clay County, Georgia.
TEMPER: Fine sand was used as temper for this type. The external surface of the paste has a distinctive gray-black color.
SURFACE DECORATION: The incised decoration of this type consisted of multiple concentric lines on a water bottle form. The incising along the neck of the bottle is usually zigzag while the incising on the body of the bottle consists of scrolls covering the upper half of the body. The lower half of the body and base appear plain.
VESSEL FORMS: The only known form for this type is a water bottle with a tall neck and simple rim with a rounded lip.
CHRONOLOGY: The Nunnally type belongs to the Middle Mississippian period. Associated point types include Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Nunnally pottery is known along the lower Chattahoochee River valley in Georgia and perhaps Alabama, but appears to be limited to this small area.
RESEARCH: This type was named by Jesse Jennings and Charles Fairbanks in 1939. Gordon Willey later described it from a Florida perspective in 1949. The type was named by Jennings and Fairbanks for Ocmulgee Fields at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Georgia.
TEMPER: This is a grit-tempered pottery, but crushed shell is also infrequently used. The exterior surface may occasionally have a light clay wash.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consists of poorly executed incised lines that are often smoothed over. Designs are both curvilinear and rectilinear including scrolls, guilloches, combined scrolls combined with straight lines, chevrons, and horizontal lines that are parallel to the lip. Designs are confined to the rim on cazuela bowls or the upper body and interior rim surfaces on open bowls.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include globular jars, and cazuela and open bowls. On cazuela bowls, the design is restricted to the rim area. Rims are in-sloping or incurved or out-flared.
CHRONOLOGY: Willey believed that this type was related to the Aucilla Incised type and that it developed out of the Lamar Bold Incised type. The type dated to between 1650 and 1750 or later. PLEASE NOTE THAT ADDITIONAL DESIGNS ARE INCLUDED IN THE ALABAMA POTTERY SECTION WITH EXTENSIVE NOTES.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type occurs across Georgia, primarily below the Fall line and into north-central Florida.
RESEARCH: This type was first recognized at the Joe Bell site by Mark Williams. It then began to surface at various early Historic sites throughout the Piedmont region of the Oconee River Valley. The type had never been formally named until Williams defined it in 1983. There is some thought that it had been called Old Oconee Town, but there is no written record the use of this name other than its listing in the SEAC records.
TEMPER: This is a grit-tempered pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface of the upper portion of the vessel is covered with fine lines of incising. The execution is usually excellent. Designs are multiple parallel curvilinear and rectilinear incised lines and swirls in number of 10 or more. These lines do not appear to have been the result of a comb, but were individually incised, narrow lines. No other form of decoration is present.
VESSEL FORM: The primary vessel form is a cazuela bowl, although at least one complete globular jar is known and is on display at the Ocmulgee National Monument. The walls of the vessels are thin and the bowls have rounded bottoms. Rims are always inverted.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery was made from the late 1500’s to the mid 1600’s and may have served as very fine trade ware during the fur trade era.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This pottery is known within the Oconee Valley from Athens to the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee Rivers, but is more commonly found in the Piedmont region.
RESEARCH: James B. Griffin named this type in 1945. James Griffin’s research of fiber-tempered pottery in the St. Johns region was followed by John M. Goggin within the same region by 1952.
TEMPER: Plant fibers were used as temper in this early paste. In the area of coastal southeastern Georgia and northeastern Florida, the paste turns a bright to dull orange after firing, thus the name “Orange.”
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface of this pottery is fairly well smoothed, although fiber lines may still be seen in many examples. Incised lines are rectilinear in form with few curvilinear lines, unlike the Tick Island Incised type of the same period. John Goggin believed that the incising on this type served as a pattern for the St. Johns Incised pottery that would eventually develop. Patterns of incising included nested chevrons, squares or diamonds, hatched lines in a band, or triangular areas with hatching. Incised lines were often “Ticked” with short incised lines perpendicular to the longer design lines (right).
VESSEL FORMS: Very few partial vessels have survived. Most sherds suggest flat-bottomed, round or square vessels with straight to in-slanting sides. Rims are simple with rounded or slightly flattened lips.
CHRONOLOGY: After some discussion, Goggin settled on Tick Island Incised and Orange being essentially the same age, and Orange Incised serving as a pattern for the St. Johns Incised type. Orange Incised pottery belongs to the Late Archaic period, dating to about 4500 RCYBP. Related points are Savannah River, Culbreath, Clay, and Santa Fe points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Orange Incised pottery occurs from the St. Johns region to the lower Atlantic coastline of Georgia.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey defined this type from his work in the Manatee and Central Coast regions of Florida.
TEMPER: The sand tempering material used in this type ranges from fine to coarse.
SURFACE DECORATION: Designs on this type are made with medium to broad line incision with small to large punctuation. The designs are most often limited to the upper portion of the exterior and may be separated from the rim or collar by a single incised line below the rim. A common design consist of a single-line (or a line of pinched clay) arcade encircling the vessel below the rim with a row of heavy, often rectangular, punctations above it. Other designs include rectilinear-curvilinear designs or meander with backgrounds sometimes filled with punctation, parallel incised lines or volutes, or running scroll or wavy bands composed of two or three lines. The incising is generally poorly done and designs are most often linked in a continuous fashion around the vessel.
VESSEL FORMS: Forms include big collared ollas or bowls, simple open bowls with lightly incurved or straight rims, and casuela bowls. The rims are unmodified or slightly thickened and the lips are indentations or pinching on exterior rim edge. The bases are rounded. Appendages appear as small vertical loop handles with nodes at the top.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery belongs to the Late Mississippian, Safety Harbor period. Related points include Safety Harbor Stemmed and Pinellas points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found in the Central Coast and Manatee region of Florida.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey defined this type from sites along the Northwest Coast of Florida in 1949.
TEMPER: This type of pottery has in it a mixture of sand, grit and clay particles that was coarser that previous pottery types. The paste is often gray and lumpy, but it is turned a whitish or reddish buff or simply buff color by firing.
SURFACE DECORATION: The decoration on this type consists of a series of two, three, or four lines to carry out all designs. The principle design motifs are figures in isolation, complicated scroll patterns, running scrolls, ovals intersected with crossbars, diamonds and shaped figures, or the combination of curvilinear and rectilinear elements into composite patterns. In contrast to the sand-tempered Pinellas Incised pottery of the Central Gulf Coast, the designs on Point Washington Incised pottery are finely done.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms for this type include a shallow bowl or dish, flattened-globular bowl, casuela bowl (most common), collard globular bowl, short-colored jars, bottles (common), double bowl, jar with cambered rim, simple bowl with affixed effigies, and a gourd-effigy forms. Most rims are thickened except for a perceptible thinning at the lip edge. Long, thin rim folds are common. These are usually underlined with an incised line. The lips are rounded-pointed.
CHRONOLOGY: This type is Fort Walton related and belongs to the Middle Mississippian period. Related points include Pinellas, Ichetucknee, and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found in sites along the Northwest Florida coast. It seems more common at the western end of this range and probably extends into coastal and interior Alabama similar to the distribution of Pensacola pottery.
RESEARCH: The Qualla series was named by Brian Egloff based upon excavations by a number of sites in western North Carolina, as well as northern South Carolina. Bennie C. Keel again discussed this type in 1976. The type was named after the Qualla Cherokee Reservation. Keel reported that 81 percent of the pottery recovered from the Tuckasegee site in Jackson County, North Carolina. It seems important to recognize that there is, as Egloff believed, a marked difference between the pottery forms produced by the Georgia and South Carolina Cherokee potters (Lower Towns), the North Carolina Villages (Middle, Valley and Out Towns), and the Tennessee Overhill Towns.
TEMPER: This type was tempered with moderate to large amounts of grit and is very similar to Lamar pottery of Georgia. In Georgia, Lamar is the preferred name.
SURFACE DECORATION: The incising on this type, while similar to Lamar incising and bold incising, is not accompanied by the cane punctations as it is in Lamar pottery. The interior surfaces of the vessel are burnished, making this type very distinguishable from Lamar sherds, even when the exterior surfaces are obliterated.
VESSEL FORMS: Sherd examples at the Tuckasegee site suggested simple bowls, carinated bowls, globular jars with short necks, and large jars with constricted mouths. Appendages were rare on Qualla vessels and none were recovered at this site. Folded finger impressed rim fillets are typical as they are with Lamar pottery.
CHRONOLOGY: Cherokee potters made this type during the Late Mississippian and Historic period. Radiocarbon dating at the Tuckasegee site (N.C.) fell at A.D. 1775 +/- 55 years, the Garden Creek Mound site (N.C.) dated at A.D. 1730 +/- 100 years, and the Chauga site (S.C.) dated to A.D. 1120 +/- 150 years. Related point types include Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type is distributed throughout western North and South Carolina, eastern Tennessee and perhaps extreme northeastern Georgia.
RESEARCH: This was mentioned by Antonio Waring as a type in the Stallings series. He did not however, formally define it. This type has been known for a long time from the Stallings Island site near Augusta in the Savannah River.
TEMPER: This is fiber-tempered pottery. Paste colors vary from buff and gray to black.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consists of incising that may be broad or thin lined and is most often rectilinear, but clearly distinguishable from simple stamping. Rims are most often rounded but may be incised as well.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include bowl shapes with straight rims. Rims normally slant outward, however inward slanting rims are known at the Stallings Island site. Lips are most often rounded.
CHRONOLOGY: Stallings pottery belongs to the Late Archaic period. Related point types include Savannah River, Adena, Allendale, Thelma, Culbreath, Clay, and Santa Fe points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is known along the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to St. Simons Island and up the Savannah River well into the Piedmont area and across central and southern Georgia.
RESEARCH: The St. Johns series of pottery was defined by James B. Griffin in 1945 and further discussed by John Goggin in 1952 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: The incised patterns on this type seem to be a continuation of Orange Incised pottery. Incised designs include nested Chevron’s, nested squares or diamonds, hatched lines in a band, or triangular area with hatching.
VESSEL FORMS: The most common vessel forms are large bowls.
CHRONOLOGY: This pottery is used as a marker for the end of the Orange Period and dates to the Early Woodland, St. Johns 1 period. Related point types are Culbreath, Citrus, Hernando, and Jackson points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Goggin found this type only in the St. Johns River Valley north of Palatka, Florida. Dr. Mark Williams, of the University of Georgia, indicated that the type has been recovered as far west as Valdosta, Georgia.
RESEARCH: This type was named for Upatoi Creek at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia by David Chase in 1959. Jerald Ledbetter did further work on the type while excavating the Victory Drive site in 1996.
TEMPER: This pottery was tempered with sand or grit.
SURFACE DECORATION: The decoration on Upatoi pottery consists of shallow parallel diagonal incised lines or a series of two or more short, disconnected incised lines running parallel to the lip.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include a straight-sided cylindrical vessel with a conoidal base and simple rim and a globular jar form with slight shoulders and a straight rim.
CHRONOLOGY: This is a Late Woodland pottery type. Related point types are Woodland Triangular and Jack’s Reef Corner Notched points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The distribution for this type is west-central Georgia and probably eastern Alabama.
Background: This type was only made for a brief period in time possibly only 100 years. Named by Chester DePratter after the Walthour site in Chatham County.
Sorting Criteria
Check stamping on clay or grog-tempered pottery. Rims are straight, sometimes slightly flaring. Lips are rounded or squared. Known vessel forms are conoidal jar and hemispherical bowls.
Chronological Range
Middle Woodland, Wilmington I phase.
Geographical Range
The upper Georgia Coast.
References
DePratter 1991:175-176.
RESEARCH: Gordon Willey named this type in 1949. Willey’s researched focused along the Florida Gulf Coast.
TEMPER: Fine sand was used as temper. Micah is observed in most sherds. Surface color varies according to the firing from light buff, red-buff, gray, and mottled black.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decorations are a combination of incised lines, and small dots or triangular punctuations. The basic design principle is the contrast of areas with the featured design expressed in the undecorated areas. Hatching, crosshatching, and felids of punctuations are used as backgrounds. Background areas and plain areas are separated by incised line. Designs are essentially curvilinear and include continuous meanderings and simple and compound lobate forms. Decoration is often confined to a zone encircling the upper half of the vessel exterior; however, the decorating of the entire exterior surface, with the exception of the base, is noted.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms are open bowls, bowls with in-curved rims, flattened-globular bowls, and simple jar forms. In burials, forms include squared-globular bowls, collard globular bowls, squared and cylindrical beakers, double-and single-globed jars both plain and in semi-effigy form, gourd effigy bowls, lobed or melon bowls, and miscellaneous forms. Rims include in-curving and recurved forms. Folding or thickening is common. Incised or linear punctated lines often encircled the fold on the side. Lips are usually underscored by incised lines. Lips are pointed or flat-round or flat. An incised linear-punctuated line often encircles the vessel on top of the lip. Bases are round, flat-circular, and flat-rectangular. Triangulate lateral rim projections, often bearing decorations on the interior surfaces, are arranged four to an open bowl.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Weeden Island I and II periods. Related point types are Pinellas, Leon, Taylor, Copena, Bradford, and Columbia points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found from west of Pensacola to the Little Manatee River and north into southern Alabama. Occasionally this type is found in the St. Johns area through trade.
RESEARCH: The combined research of Robert Wauchope and Joseph Caldwell Robert Wauchope identified the Woodstock site in Cherokee County, Georgia and named the type, however documentation of their work has subsequently been lost. The type was named after the town of Woodstock, Georgia.
TEMPER: This type is tempered with either sand or grit. The paste is usually gray in color, but may be a dark tan.
SURFACE DECORATION: Incised decoration consists of medium to bold horizontal lines that may have ticking along them or alternating groups of horizontal and diagonal lines. Rows of punctations may be interspersed between groups of incised lines as seen below.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include cylindrical beakers with out-curving or in-curving rims, globular jars, bowls with flaring or straight walls, deep pots with straight, out-slanting walls that turn upward below the lip. Lips are flat or rounded. Rims may also be scalloped with a broad, shallow notching.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Late Woodland, Woodstock period. Related point types are Woodland Triangular, Jack’s Reef Corner Notched, Ebenezer, and Yadkin points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is found in northwestern Georgia and may appear in eastern Alabama.
