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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:James Stoltman named this type in 1974.This type was named for Allendale County, South Carolina by James Stoltman at the Groton Plantation site.
TEMPER: This is sand-tempered pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration consists of a multitude of randomly and closely-spaced punctations coupled with indentations that give the appearance of repeated “stamping,” with perhaps grass or pine straw similar to Lochloosa Punctated pottery from Florida.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms are unknown. Rims are flattened with the remaining paste untrimmed.
CHRONOLOGY: Stoltman assigned this type to the Middle to Late Woodland period. Associated artifacts might include Woodland Triangular points and Baker’s Creek points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This pottery is found from the Coastal Plain of South Carolina to the lower Savannah River area in Georgia.
RESEARCH: Eugene Waddell defined this type in 1965. The type was named after Awendaw Creek or the town of Awendaw in Charleston County, northeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Mark Williams noted that this type, when it occurs, is usually the only pottery type present in the site. One site of this type was reported near Savannah, Georgia.
TEMPER: Grit and perhaps sand tempering was used in making this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: Punctations on this type may also include pinching, gouging, and jabbing, and may actually include little incising or punctations.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms for this type are unknown.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belongs to the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods. Associated artifacts might include the Small Savannah River point and possibly Allendale points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Awendaw pottery is found from lower South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia.
RESEARCH: This type name was used by Antonio Waring in several of his papers, but was never formally defined. Waring’s papers were eventually published in 1967.
TEMPER: Sand or grit was used as temper for this pottery.
SURFACE DECORATION: The term “Brewton Hill Zoned Punctated” refers more to a decoration pattern that occurred along the rims of some Cartersville / Deptford Check Stamped and Linear Check Stamped vessels. The areas of punctation were set off by incised zones, usually with a meandering curved line or circle. The punctations were small and done with a solid-core tool. The remaining surface of the vessel was covered with check stamping or linear check stamping done with a carved wooden paddle and would correspond to the Cartersville and/or Deptford types.
VESSEL FORM: These vessels were straight-sided jars and may have had tetropodal supports or rounded bottoms. Lips were usually rounded.
CHRONOLOGY: This decorative technique appeared on Deptford period vessels of the Middle Woodland period between 200 B.C. and A.D.200. Associated point types might include Woodland Triangular, spike, Baker’s Creek, Camp Creek, Copena, Yadkin, Greenville, and Swan Lake points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Deptford period pottery with Brewerton Hill Zoned Punctated designs has been recovered in northern Georgia and along the Central Savannah River area.
RESEARCH: Gordon R. Willey named this type in 1949. The type was named after the Carrabelle site in Franklin County, Florida.
TEMPER: Carrabelle pottery is sand-tempered.
SURFACE DECORATION: Designs are arranged in a field around the upper portion of the vessel below the rim. There is 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 parallel to the vertical axis of the vessel; stick-made punctations, rectangular or triangular with considerable size range; round-bottomed dents or shallow stick punctations; hollow-reed punctations; and double-rowed fingernail punctations with paste slightly pinched and piled up near the punctation. The field of punctations may be underlined with an incised line.
VESSEL FORMS: Known forms are globular bowls with a flared orifice, flattened-globular bowls, short-collared jars, and jars with cambered rims that are direct or slightly in-curving. Rims may be slightly thickened near the margin. Thin, flat exterior folds are common. Lips are flat-round to pointed-round.
CHRONOLOGY: The type belongs to the Middle Woodland, Weeden Island I & II periods. This may be the first of the incised or punctated Weeden Island types. Associated point types might include Leon and Woodland Triangular points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: The type is found along the Gulf Coast area of Florida; most commonly between Apalachicola River and Cedar Keys to central Alabama and Georgia.
Background
Not discussed by Gorden Willey in his 1949 report. Ripley Bullen suggested that this might be a type in Florida. Named after Crystal River site, 8Ci1, in Citrus County, Florida. Seems unlikely that this is present in Georgia.
Sorting Criteria
Punctuations on micaceous-tempered pottery. The punctuations are counter sunk from the surface of the vessel.
Vessel Forms
Chronological Range
Middle Woodland Santa Rosa-Swift Creek period.
Geographical Range
Northwestern Florida and perhaps southwestern Georgia.
References
Bullen 1966:11.
RESEARCH: Lewis and Kneberg named this type in 1946. 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 on this pottery consists of punctations that are usually found on the body of the vessel. This type of decoration rarely occurs alone. Color is light to dark gray, light and dark brown, and brick red.
VESSEL FORMS: Known vessel forms include shallow 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. Associated point types might include Mississippian Triangular and Guntersville points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Dallas pottery is found in eastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, western South Carolina and northeastern Alabama.
RESEARCH: John Goggin named this type for sites near Gainesville, Florida in 1948. Goggin’s research was in the Gainesville, Florida area.
TEMPER: Fine quartz sand or diatomaceous earth was used as temper for this type.
SURFACE DECORATION: The design is a series of parallel horizontal or vertical punctated lines. The horizontal lines apparently completely encircle the vessel; and the vertical lines may have radiated from the bottom of the vessel. In some cases the 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.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessels consisted of simple hemispherical bowls with unmodified rims.
CHRONOLOGY: This type belonged to the Late Woodland, Weeden Island II Period. Associated points include Woodland Triangular, Leon and Duval points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Type distribution ran from Gainesville, Florida and west to Cedar Key and south to Lake Tsala Apopka. It has also been recovered from the southern border counties of Georgia adjacent to this region.
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. 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.
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: Orange pottery was tempered with plant fiber, possibly Spanish moss, which on firing burnt out leaving a characteristic honeycomb appearance. Later forms of the ware often have quartz sand added as temper, and some examples tend toward the chalky ware St. John’s series in texture.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface is often well smooth, but normally has a vermicular appearance due to fiber strand holes. The interior sometimes exhibits pronounced tooling marks.
VESSEL FORMS: the rim is usually simple and straight sided with a rounded or slightly flat lip. Lugs are rarely found on the rim, but when present, are an outward rounded extension of the lip. The base is normally flat and unmarked but a few sherds show impressions of twined and plated textiles.
CHRONOLOGY: Orange Plain 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: This pottery is most often found in sites on the St. Johns River above Palatka, Florida, but may occur sporadically on the coast.
RESEARCH: Antonio Waring named and defined this type in 1967. The type was named for the Refuge site located on the Savannah River that was excavated by Waring.
TEMPER: This type is tempered with sand or grit.
SURFACE DECORATION: Punctated designs on this type appear in linear rows or zones or are random. Joseph M. Herbert suggests two types of punctations, rounded (left) or bundled drag-and-jab (right), but the example below may suggest a singular angular drag-and-jab type. Punctations may be combined with incising or dentate stamping.
VESSEL FORMS: The most commonly known vessel form is the hemispherical bowl, but straight sided jars are also known. Rims are incurving to straight with lips that may be squared or rounded. Lips are rounded to square.
CHRONOLOGY: This type dates to the Early Woodland, Refuge III period. Related point types include Yadkin, Greenville, Swan Lake and Swannanoa points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: Refuge pottery is found along the Lower Savannah River and upper Georgia Coast and extends along the coastal plain of South Carolina and into the southeastern coastal sites of North Carolina as mapped by Joseph M. Herbert (2009).
RESEARCH: The St. Johns series of pottery was defined 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: 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 include Pinellas, Duval, Leon, Sarasota, and Columbia 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.
RESEARCH: This type was defined by James B. Griffin in 1943. Antonio Waring used the name Stallings Island Plain. 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.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decorative punctations of two types appear in this type. Punctation lines are arranged in rows encircling the vessel and parallel to the lip. Linear punctations were made by a drag and jab method. The second method of punctation appears as rows of individual punctations. Punctations appear as hemispherical depressions, circular depressions, semicircular, fingernail or hollow circular punctations.
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: This type was named by Eugene G. Waddell in 1963. Waddell’s research encompassed most of South Carolina.
TEMPER: Generous portions of fine sand were generally used as temper in this type with some rare examples of grit-tempering. Some examples of apparently temperless paste are also known. External colors range from tan to brown-orange to darker shades of brown. Core colors are usually tan to dark gray to black.
SURFACE DECORATION: The surface of this type varies from smoothed to polished depending on the tempering material being used. The interior surface was in most cases smoothed after decoration to remove any unevenness from punctations. Punctations were made in a wide variety of sizes and shapes using bone, wood, stone and shell. Experimentation indicates that the above designs may have been made with the root end of a deer tooth. Dowel or reed punctations were most often done using a split tool with the split portion facing the surface of the vessel. Punctations of this type were sometimes used in a poke-and-drag or linear fashion. Patterns of punctation often resemble Stallings patterns or may be random. Coastal examples may have punctations made by periwinkle or cockleshell impressions. Punctations usually ran in rows parallel to the lip (above left) and cover the entire upper and middle portion of the vessel. Some larger vessels may have only a few rows of punctation adjacent to the lip with the remainder of the vessel left plain.
VESSEL FORMS: Known forms are hemispherical and globular bowls and jars with rounded, pointed or flattened lips and rims that were straight or slightly incurving, but rarely flaring. No appendages are known.
CHRONOLOGY: This type is considered a Late Archaic to Early Woodland type, underlying the Deptford pottery, but above Stallings pottery. Related points are Savannah River, Allendale and Thelma points.
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION: This type is known within south and central South Carolina, but is rare south of the Savannah River into Georgia.
RESEARCH: This type was named by Gordon Willey in 1949. Willey’s research revealed that this type was present with much more frequency along the Central Gulf Coast of Florida than along the northwestern coast.
TEMPER: Fine sand with only rare coarser particles in the form of grit or lumps of clay was used as temper in this type. Micah is observed in most sherds.
SURFACE DECORATION: Decoration of this type consisted of round or small triangular punctuations impressed into soft clay of vessels before firing. The use of deep, rounded punctuations, large triangular punctuations, and hollow-read punctuations were used at the termination of segmentation of lines. Occasionally the use of fine incision was used, but only as a subsidiary element in the punctuation design. Designs are basically curvilinear and tend to emphasize contrasting areas of the plain polished surface in contrast to punctated fields. Designs were often brought out negatively by punctuating only the background fields. Most punctated designs were continuous meanders, scrolls, lobe forms, leaf-like forms, circles, and triangles. These elements are outlined with lines of closely-spaced punctations and are often filled with widely-spaced punctations. The various geometrical elements are usually connected by lines of punctuations, integrating all parts of the design into one over-all composition. Relief modeling and appliqué techniques were used to delineate effigy features.
VESSEL FORMS: Vessel forms include flattened-globular bowls, simple jars, open bowls, short-colored jars and cylindrical beakers.
CHRONOLOGY: This type appears primarily in the Weeden Island II period, although it may also occur in the Weeden Island I period. Related point types are Pinellas, Leon, Taylor, Copena, Bradford, and Columbia points.
