American Indian Pottery pulled fromCedar Creek in NC

[heybubbajay]

Working for a museum, I occasional get asked to authenticate & research local finds. Most of the questionable finds are Indian artifacts (see previous threads) and are deemed repros. However, this find is intriguing. A local from around Chimney Rock, NC pulled this pottery vase from the Cedar Creek.

The piece is complete, has two pinched handles. It also has some whitish patina and certainly looks old, it reminds me of a Mediterranean amphora, the type ancient cultures would fill with oil or wine and send out on ships only to be shipwrecked and littered across the sea floor. But in the NC mountains?

Anyone...please give your opinion! Age...tribe...etc..

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[rock]

Interesting piece. All the pottery I find and I have never seen anything like it. Im in N GA.
Does it have a seam on the side?

 

[heybubbajay]

Rock, the artifact has a seem on a side below the handles...curious!

 

[ptsofnc]

I'm from and still in NC. Is it a fired clay item or soapstone? I've never seen/found any clay item (or sherds of a broken clay vessel that could have once been part of what you're holding) here in NC and I've found a lot of broken pottery. Kind of looks historic like a flask or something? I don't know.

 

[Red James Cash]

But in the NC mountains?

Never know,i know amphora jugs have been pulled up off the Maine coast and roman oil lamps have been found in native American shell mounds.

 

[heybubbajay]

@ptsofnc...it looks like it was fired and what seems to be a crude seam on 1 side. It is my understanding handles were not typical for Indian pottery either; but a late European/African influence...

 

[rock]

Im just guessing but it looks more like something a pirate would of had on his ship. This is the type of handles I find on the pots here which I have only found 1 and they are called "lugs"

 

[heybubbajay]

Thanks rock, the consensus is telling me that this is likely not a North American piece--it is possibly very old and brought from elsewhere. Whether it was someone's novelty flask that was picked up from the coast 200 years ago or someone's recent jovial plant...I am not sure.

 

[GatorBoy]

I would definitely run a metal detector around that area

 

[monsterrack]

It's just the right size for a whiskey flask, but have never seen one with handles , it is a cool find

 

[JRedHorse]

I have been dealing with Native Pottery for over 3 decades and I know of no tribe that would have created such a design, I think it once hand a leather strap that went through the holes to carry around the neck or waste ? Just a guess on that though!

 

[GatorBoy]

Yeah I have no idea of the origin of that piece but looking at it from a survival standpoint it seems it would be perfect for dipping water out of a creek or stream and transporting it back to a fire so it could be hung boiled and purified