Thick piece of native pottery?

[JohnDee1]

Hey y’all I was wondering if this is a piece of native pottery or a an old terra-cotta pot or something else. I was thinking it was too thick to be native, but it has a lot of sand temper. The sand is easy to feel, but my pictures don’t really do it justice. I still think it is too thick to be native. Thoughts? Thanks as always!

 

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[dognose]

In what context was this part found? Was it in a field, a creek, where? How did you find it? What state are you in?

These questions are pertinent to determining what it is you have.

Many early native american pottery used shell tempering, but not always.

Did you find any other parts besides that?

 

[Jon Stewart]

Pretty thick to be Native.

 

[JohnDee1]

Yeah the thickness made me very confused. I have found a couple grit tempered shards in the creek before, if this wasn’t so thick it would probably be one. I showed it to my friend who is into pottery, and he recognized it as a local clay with mica in it. Probably someone messing around, because the size. It is very grit tempered though. All types of ceramic/pottery in the creek. Kind’ve crude in comparison to some of the native ones I have found.

 

[GaRebel1861]

Years ago, I had someone bring me some really thick and large pottery pieces that was found in the local creek. They were very excited about their find. Unfortunately, it was actually a broken modern Chimenea that someone had tossed into the water.

 

[JohnDee1]

Yeah strange the amount of pottery that ends up in bodies of water. I have seen some broken terra-cotta that has been dumped in the water, I guess with some people if it is out of sight it is out of mind. I don’t think this piece is native, but I will be keeping it. In comparison to my native shards this thing seems really low fired. Thanks y’all.

 

[arrow86]

I would think terra cotta

 

[JohnDee1]

Yeah I thought that as well. It seems to have been in the creek a while then, due to the staining if so.

 

[ToddsPoint]

The earliest pottery in IL is called Marion Thick. It's from the early woodland period. It is tempered with grog...broken pieces from other pottery. It's pretty crude. As the Indians got better at pottery, it became thinner and the tempering material changed. I don't think yours is early Indian pottery. Gary