Temper, Temper: Variability in Ceramic Paste Recipes at a Mississippian/Protohistoric Village in Northeastern Mississippi

Summary

Mississippian-period pottery in the eastern United States is overwhelmingly described as "shell tempered," with occasional reference to poorly defined "paste" categories in traditional typologies. Researchers recently have begun to note a high level of variability in the kinds of additional temper added to what macroscopically appears to be shell-tempered wares. An example is provided by the ceramic assemblage from Lyon’s Bluff (22OK520), a mound and village site in northeast Mississippi dating from ca. A.D. 1200 – 1650, where analysis via low-power magnification and petrography reveals three to four common temper constituents included with mussel shell. Three different hypotheses potentially explaining this phenomenon are examined: temper variability represents 1) the in-movement of people from different areas; 2) functional characteristics related to vessel production and/or performance; or 3) local-scale signaling associated with the high-visibility production of pots.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15395