Does Anybody Know Bout Shell Tempering?

[Pullenrock]

I have a full bowl found on a river in Tennessee..It shows no shell tempering evidence, so what period could it be?...Woodland?...Jon

[CliffJ]

Unless it is worn or broken somewhere, you may not see the temper agent like shell. It may be covered completely with a thin slip of clay on the nicer pots. Post some pictures of the pot please.

[Pullenrock]

Ok Cliff..here we go there is a chip in this bowl..Its unlike my others and puzzeled me for awhile..

[CliffJ]

I'd like to see a pic of the bottom if you could.
Cliff

[Pullenrock]

yes sir right along..shoot!

[Pullenrock]

Ok gettin faster at this...dont say it cliff that its not authentic?..

[CliffJ]

I don't know, Jon. It sure looks like that pot is glazed and kiln fired.

[kyheadhunter]

Wow what a find! I'd be happy with it! Shame bout the chip but hey considering it's age and where it's been for who knows how long...I say it looks like a million bucks!

[Pullenrock]

mmmMMM!..well do you mean possibly recently cliff?..could it be 1800's?

[greywolf22]

Found this info: Mississippian culture pottery is the ceramic tradition of the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE) found as artifacts in archaeological sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. It is often characterized by the adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shell-tempering agents in the clay paste.[1] The adoption of shell tempering is considered one of the hallmarks of the spread of Mississippian cultural practices. The local differences in pastes, forms, and design elements are one of the major ways archaeologists understand lifeways, religious practices, and trade and interaction amongst the various Mississippian peoples. The value of this pottery on the illegal antiquities market has led to extensive looting of sites.
Mississippian culture pottery was made from locally available clay sources, which often gives archaeologists clues as to where a specific example originated. It was then tempered with an additive to keep it from shrinking and cracking in the drying and firing process, usually with ground mussel shells, although in some locations the older tradition of grog tempering persisted into Mississippian times. [2]
The potters used slab-built construction and the "coiling" method, [3] [4] which involved working the clay into a long string which was wound round to form a shape and then modeled to form smooth walls, as the potter's wheel was not used by pre-contact Native Americans. Some decoration of the clay was done at this stage by incising or stamping designs into the wet clay. After the works had dried sufficiently, it was heated in a wood fire.
Most pottery found at Mississippian sites is of the variety known as "Mississippian Bell Plain." It was buff colored, contains large fragments of ground mussel shell as a tempering agent, and is not as smooth and polished as finer varieties. Higher quality ceramics features a finer ground shell as a temper - some instances being so finely ground as to look untempered. [5] Extravagant fine serving wares and grave goods were also produced, with some examples exhibiting handles shaped like animal heads and tails or in the shapes of animal or human forms. [6] Women were probably the makers of pottery, as in most other Native American cultures. Archaeologists found 11 polishing pebbles and a mushroom shaped pottery anvil in the grave of a woman at the Nodena Site. [5]

[greywolf22]

More Info: Aztalan is considered one of the more interesting archaeological sites in the United States. It is located in a glacial drift region on the banks of the Crawfish River, about 2 1/2 miles east of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. More specifically, it lies in Sections 17, 20, and 21 of Township 7N, Range 14E, Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Although the association is purely fictional, the word Aztalan is derived from the name given to an ancient Aztec settlement before their migration southward to Tenochitlan (present-day Mexico City).
The ceramic pottery sherds found at this site are very interesting. Outside of the southern United States shell-tempered ceramic types are not common. They are known as Middle Mississippi Type characteristic of cultures located in the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley of the southern United States. Grit-tempered pottery, classified as Lake Michigan and Woodland Type, are the dominant ceramic form found throughout Wisconsin during this period; therefore, one would expect to find grit-tempered ceramics of this type at Aztalan. However, not only are shell-tempered ceramics found at Aztalan, they are the dominant ceramic type throughout this site.
Middle Mississippi Valley shell-tempered pottery is compact, fairly hard and well-fired. It is primarily found in 2 colors -- grayish-black and brick red. Both the interior and exterior surfaces of the sherds are smooth, and shape and design vary greatly in this pottery type. Although the majority of pottery found is undecorated and was used for cooking and storage, among the decorated samples there is much variance; in fact, there are at least 28 distinct forms of shell-tempered Aztalan pottery. Typical design methods include incising, modeling, and punctate decoration.
There are also 2 variations of Aztalan grit-tempered pottery --Lake Michigan and Woodland Type. Both are tempered with coarse black grit derived from crushing certain types of rock. Natural sand was only rarely used as a tempering agent. The pottery fragments found have rough exteriors with the imprints of cord-wrapped paddle , and smooth interiors. The Lake Michigan Type of vessel is circular-mouthed and has little or no decoration; when decoration is present it consists of simple geometric designs applied with cord-imprinting. The Woodland variety of Aztalan ceramics are angular-mouthed and typically have decorated rims.
  LAKE MICHIGAN POTTERY
WOODLAND POTTERY
  Transitional forms of pottery have also emerged from the Aztalan Site. These pieces are all grit-tempered, but they borrow from the Middle Mississippi style. Clearly, the transitional forms represented an "improvement" (advancement in technology) on the grit-tempered pottery. Since the transitional types of pottery were found intermingled with both the shell and grit-tempered varieties, it is highly probable that they were used simultaneously. The existence of these transitional pieces probably indicate some degree of culture mixture.
Even though the presence of transitional types of pottery would point to a certain amount of contact with other cultures, the predominance of shell-tempered ceramics in Aztalan and its absence elsewhere in Wisconsin leads to one of two possible conclusions -- either the Aztalan people lived in relative isolation, or they inhabited this site for only a short period of time. Archaeological evidence supports the isolation hypothesis, suggesting that the Aztalan were a war-like, cannibalistic people. Such a violent way of life may account for a lack of cultural interaction with outsiders. The transitional types of pottery, then, may simply be the work of captives or adopted outsiders.
Aztalan will continue to be of significance for Midwestern archaeology in the United States. Nowhere outside of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley regions has there been such a dominant presence of shell-tempered pottery. What this says about the Aztalan culture remains to be determined with any degree of certainty. What can be concluded, though, is that Aztalan is truly a "southern island" in a territory which is otherwise Upper Mississippi and Woodland throughout.
SOURCE:
Barrett, S.A. Ancient Aztalan, Greenwood Press Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, 1970.
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[Pullenrock]

This pot was found by an older gentleman many years ago..yes it was found in about five pieces and reattached..I believe it to be authentic but who made it?..native americans or white man..oh wow let me finish reading............good info thanks

[Pullenrock]

Actually holding it in hand here its in four pieces and i dont thing its been glazed as maybe my camera flash reacted a bit on it cliff..all those little white dots are pits and chips..it went back together very nicely..

[CliffJ]

Jon,
  I have hundreds of ancient pots from all over. Your bowl just doesn't look to be an ancient Tennessee bowl. It could be from the SW, or even Meso-America, but it looks like it has a slip on it and the clay does not look to be TN clay. It may be kiln fired and you may can tell that if it has a sort of ring to it when you tap it. The breaks in it appear very crisp and may indicate high firing. If I had to guess from the pics, I'd guess that it is a colonial/settler bowl made on a wheel and fired in a kiln.
If you can get a good close pic of the chipped place, we might see signs of the tempering agent.
Cliff

[Pullenrock]

thankyou Cliff..it doesnt look like any of my others also..it was rolled though as a native american bowl is.I guess possibly they did post 1800 also..Its not possible that the tempering agent could be micro?  or hard to see with the naked eye?...mmmm dont know.Your right though the breaks are crisp...j