Molecular evidence of changing foodways across the Mississippian transition at the George Reeves site (11S650)

ABSTRACT

The George Reeves site (11S650) is a multicomponent village on the bluffs in the central American Bottom, Illinois. The site was occupied from the Late Woodland Rosewood phase through the Mississippian Lohmann phase. Pottery use and dietary variation between the Late Woodland and Emergent Mississippian occupations at the site were explored through stylistic analysis, pottery residue analysis, and compound-specific carbon isotopic analysis of pottery residues. Although more samples should be analyzed, diet and pottery use at George Reeves seems to have been varied, with maize present by cal AD 900–1000, but comprising a relatively small portion of lipid residues in pottery. Residue analysis indicates a C₄ presence in 5 of 16 sampled pots from the early Emergent Mississippian deriving from either maize or from meat from animals consuming maize. Pottery residues were mixed, showing C₃ and C₄ plants as well as meat and fish or shellfish. One residue showed a high incidence of C₄ contribution, most likely from Portulaca oleracea (common purslane), as well as large amounts of fish or shellfish and another C₃ plant. Residue from a ceramic pipestem indicates that maize may have been smoked, probably in the form of maize silk mixed with other nontobacco plants.     

A case for lead-glaze experimentation by late eighteenth-century Catawba using portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF)

ABSTRACT

Recent research has demonstrated that Catawba ceramic practices changed abruptly and dramatically after 1759 following a devastating smallpox epidemic and subsequent community relocation. Pottery from the historically documented Catawba town of Old Town and others indicate potters adopted new techniques and styles as they adjusted to new economic and social conditions, including copying European vessel forms, experimenting with new ceramic paste recipes, and utilizing new decorative motifs. The identification of four lead-glazed sherds on otherwise Catawba-looking pale-bodied paste raises the possibility that Catawba potters may have also experimented with lead glazing. This paper presents the results of an elemental analysis of nearly 70 ceramic samples using pXRF and multivariate statistical techniques to identify patterns of production within pale-bodied colonowares. The results indicate that the glazed pottery fragments were made with elementally similar clay used by Catawbas in the Twelvemile Creek locality. I argue that in addition to modifying nearly every aspect of their ceramic repertoire, at least one Catawba potter experimented with lead glazing, providing further insights into the emergent Catawba pottery trade.     

Ceramic form and function in the Neolithic Gulf. A view from Bahra 1

This paper discusses the possible functions of ceramic vessels in the Neolithic Gulf, based on new data from the Ubaid-related settlement of Bahra 1 (Kuwait). Two pottery groups identified at the site—Ubaid Ware and Coarse Red Ware—are found in great numbers and variety of forms which provides grounds for a reconsideration of the role of pottery vessels in the societies of the Gulf. Analysis of this material reveals a more varied function of pottery vessels compared to that suggested in earlier studies. It was also possible to define the function of certain pottery vessels in more detail, both in their economic and social context.