Pottery artifact?

[Upatree]

Good morning. I found this piece of pottery in Butler county KS yesterday(south central)... I have no idea how to identify old pottery . I can see quite a bit of larger grains of sand in the worn surface. There appears to be no distinct marking or color to it. Was found on private property where artifacts have been found in the past on Rock Creek. This is by far the "most untouched" .property we hunt on. You really have to struggle to find trash or human sign. That's why I think this may be something pretty old.. I have no idea how to identify Native American pottery. Any ideas? The picture where the surface is smooth is the inside curvature of the piece. 3/4s of an inch thick. Thanks folks

[SurfaceHunter]

Maybe a piece of a old broken pipe. Doesn't look like pottery to me.

[SurfaceHunter]

Is it heavy

[redrocks]

Break a tiny piece off ....should crumble very easily if it's clay potttery

[Upatree]

It crumbles quite easy for sure..turns to dust except for the sand in it of course. We were miles and miles from any civilization or pipelines..not even an old farmhouse near the property. Interesting find for that area..thanks for your input

[redrocks]

YW. I know that sand was used as a temper in some clay pottery. ...and also crushed shell and quartz...when I enlarge the first pic I think I am seeing some tiiny quartz....that was.a huge bowl....is the part near ur hand.rounded like the rim?

[Jethro355]

That’s about as old as pottery gets in this country. That’s what we call “woodland” pottery, which probably isn’t exactly right, but it’s old. It’s before shell/calcium tempering, which dates back probably 7-800 years, but that has been debated forever....I’d be willing to say it’s no older than 2,000 years...but could fall anywhere in the time frame of then to about 5-700 years ago.

its sand/grit tempered, and in that climate it could last a really long time buried, and a pretty long time exposed.

[SGT.Digger]

I’d be looking for the rest right where you found that. Do some digging it’s there

[Upatree]

Yup redrock I figure that was part of the rim from the way its shaped. It's really hard to see the shape of it with the pictures. Its exterior side is extremely worn but there was no doubt in my wife and I's mind it was a piece of pottery..I just didnt know how old. Our next trip out there I will do some digging and look for more of it. ..the inside surface has really small grooves in it like the inside was smoothed with some kind semi smooth tool...thanks for ever bodies input.

[redrocks]

When I say rim ..this is called a "rim sherd'"....rounded off And finished right at the top of the pot

[Jethro355]

I love that piece, still.👍👍

[redrocks]

Thx Jethro it's my favoriite rim

[SDhunter]

Quite a big sherd you found. It was a little hard to see it as pottery due to its material, but you can see it’s tempering. Nice find

[Jethro355]

One reason the inside may be in better condition is that sometimes they would make the pot/bowl from one type of clay, often a type that was readily available but maybe not “top shelf” material, and then they would put an somewhat thinner inner coat of a finer, higher grade material, often colored, to provide a smooth surface inside.

[Jethro355]

And another thing that could help account for it’s size...could be, might not be, and this is a little creepy, but they did use urns to house the remains of their ancestors. In Desoto’s chronicles, his scribes talk about one of the Quapaw villages making war on another and one of the things they did to really piss the other tribe off was to kick over their urns and smash them, scattering the bones about.

It could be part of a destroyed burial urn, they were quite large.😮