Little Pots, Big Implications: Analysis of Devils Lake Sourisford Ritual Pottery Vessels

Summary

With an estimated temporal range spanning from 900 to 1400 AD, the Devils Lake Sourisford (DLS) pottery tradition has been viewed as a northern expression of Mississippian cultural influence within the Northernmost Great Plains. Owing to the recovery of these vessels in direct association with human remains and the paucity of available vessels for analyses, understanding this phenomenon has posed a complicated challenge for archaeologists. However, advancements in pottery analyses have provided the opportunity to extract data previously unavailable. Submission of a single DLS vessel from Saskatchewan for multiple pottery analyses including carbonized food residues, D-Stretch Rock Art image analysis, high definition photography, and portable XRF scanning has provided incredible insight towards the design, creation, and use of DLS pottery for ritual activities. Combination of these analyses has concluded that this ceremonial item was treated with a red ochre design and that both maize, and wild rice, contributed to the items prepared within the vessel. Further comparison to three more additional ritual vessels resulted in the identification of ritual trends within the DLS tradition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage