A Ceramic Assemblage from Allendale County, South Carolina

11/15/2017

In the week before SEAC, I had the students in my South Carolina Archaeology class sorting sherds in my lab. As the first part of a group/individual ceramic project, they were getting some experience identifying vessel portion, kind of temper, surface treatment, and decoration in sherds from a surface collection from Allendale County, South Carolina (the Larry Strong collection -- the same one I used to get some data for this Kirk paper). For the second part of the project, I'm going to supply them with the combined data and ask them to: (A) match the groups to named ceramic wares using information on excellent sites such as this one; (B) create a graphic depiction of change through time in temper, surface treatment, and the frequency of decoration; and (C) address in writing several questions linking the pottery to patterns of social/technological change.

I'm posting some quick images of most of the rim sherds (and some decorated non-rims) here so they will be able to look at them without coming back to the lab repeatedly while they're working on their projects. I know that some of you will know what these types are -- please don't deprive my students of the joy of discovery!

Also - hi students!

Rims: sand tempered, plain surface, no decoration.

Rims: sand tempered, plain surface, incised decoration.

Rims: sand tempered, plain surface, punctate decoration.

Non-rims: sand tempered, plain surface, punctate decoration.

Non-rims: sand tempered, plain surface, punctate and incised decoration.

Rims: fiber tempered, simple stamped surface, no decoration.

Rims: fiber tempered, plain surface, no decoration.

Non-rims: fiber tempered, plain surface, incised decoration.

Non-rims: fiber tempered, plain surface, punctate decoration.

Rims: sand tempered, complicated stamped surface, no decoration.

Rims: sand tempered, simple stamped surface, no decoration.

Rims: sand tempered, simple stamped surface, incised decoration (on lip and interior).

Example of incised decoration on interior rim of simple stamped sherd.

Rims: sand tempered, check stamped, no decoration.

Rim: sand tempered, check stamped, incised decoration (on interior).

Decoration on interior of rim shown above.

Rims: sand tempered, cord marked surface, no decoration (these are the "thin" cord marked sherds).

Rims: sand tempered, cord marked surface, no decoration (these are the "thick" cord marked sherds).

11 Comments

Bob Jase

11/15/2017 11:00:28 am

Just be grateful that ancient aliens taught folks how to make pottery or we'd have little evidence of their existance.

Andy White

11/15/2017 11:09:15 am

You know, if the "researchers" on the fringe would spend half as much time studying material culture as they do running their mouths they'd have a lot less to say. Show me where in this 4500-year-long pottery sequence is the evidence for intrusions by Old World peoples, giants, Atlanteans, etc. The advent of check stamped surface treatment?

Jim

11/17/2017 08:11:45 am

If you show a scaled down map showing where each one was found, I'm pretty sure I can draw some lines and come up with a constellation or two.
Also some of the shards depict Ogham characters, one actually translates to "Harold the Templar wuz here"

Bob Jase

11/17/2017 09:04:15 am

The lack of evidence proves every fringe 'theory' correct. You know that you evil conspirator you, bet you've even visited the Smithsonian.

Peter

11/16/2017 07:47:15 am

You should have put a watermark copyright on these. They might show up somewhere with 'Minoan' annotation and red arrows, otherwise.

Andy White

11/17/2017 08:58:22 am

If you look very closely at the edges, you will see that each of them actually has tiny print that says "not Minoan."

Jose S

11/20/2017 07:21:31 pm

As usual “mainstream” archeologists with real degrees ignore the evidence. If you look closely at the atricraft in the center of the Non-Rims image (http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/uploads/2/6/5/2/26529082/img-20171115-125612406_orig.jpg) you can clearly see an X with a hook. I think the piece screams “THE TEMPLARS WERE HERE”. It is definitely some sort of Templar graffiti and a key to the coded hidden message on the holes and circles on the other pieces. So no, no aliens involved this time, unless Jim’s scaled down map can show a map of the stars in one of the pieces.... LOL!

Joe Scales

11/28/2017 10:42:15 am

Well, you're not going to find any Templar pottery. According to Scott Wolter... and this is what he has written recently... the Templars in America during the fourteenth century actively hid traces of their settlements because Jesuits were out to get them. But don't get hung up on the whole Jesuits weren't around then either. Just embrace the crazy and go with it.

Harold Edwards

11/25/2017 09:26:56 am

It seems to me that native peoples material culture, at least the part of it preserved in archaeological sites, was very conservative. Styles lasted for 500 years or more. Of course, much of their material culture was in wood and animal parts--skins, horns, etc.--and has not been preserved. Still I think their societies may have been in a steady state configuration for hundreds if not thousands of years. Is that true? If so why? I might add that much of European material culture was in wood up to the 19th Century. Maybe instead of a Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, we should refer to it as a Wood Age. This can be seen by looking at things like carpentry tools and household objects used in Colonial Times. Metals did not dominate until mass production techniques were developed in the 19th Century. In this way the first Europeans were probably not that much different from the native peoples in everyday material culture.

Andy White

11/28/2017 10:48:17 am

Those who want to argue for pre-Columbian European outposts in North America should take a gander at what the archaeological remains of a briefly occupied Spanish town look like. Santa Elena was occupied by several hundred Spaniards for about 20 years. Archaeologists have been excavating it for much longer than that now, still just scratching the surface. But thousands and thousands and thousands of artifacts have been recovered in context. And there is architecture. This is what a site looks like.

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_anthro_studies/9/

Joe Scales

11/28/2017 01:54:39 pm

Certainly those who are open to actual evidence and have acquired reasoning skills based upon true logic would gladly accept the realities of archaeology. Then there's Scott Wolter...

Too bad he chickened out before facing you and your students last year. Good for him, I suppose. Bad for fans of comedic theatre.

A Ceramic Assemblage from Allendale County, South Carolina

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