Artifact Spotlight

COLLECTIONS

Evidence of Novice Pottery Making

Unique Tierra Verde Mound artifact sparks interest

As AWIARE catalogs the artifacts and documents it received as part of the Lyman O. Warren Collection several interesting artifacts have been identified. One of the most interesting is a small pot with an incised decoration that appears to be the work of a novice potter, probably a child. The vessel is from the Tierra Verde mound, an early Safety Harbor period site on Tierra Verde (formerly Cabbage Key).

The pot is incomplete, consisting of six sherds that conjoin to make about one-third of a small, shallow bowl. The design consists of concentric loops arrayed along an incised line parallel to the vessel’s lip. One loop has a series of fingernail punctations and two triangular elements radiating outward. These design elements are similar to those of a style of pottery known as Safety Harbor incised, but are not as well executed as typical incised vessels. Estimation of the bowl’s size and shape is based on the partial rim diameter and vessel curvature.

Based on these, the bowl was only 16cm (a little over 6’’) in diameter with a depth of about 7.5cm (3”). If, as seems likely, this was made by a child, then its recovery provides insight into participation in burial ritual by adolescents, an often overlooked segment of prehistoric societies.

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