Current Research: Ceramic Production and Distribution during the Formative Caddo Period: A Stylistic and Provenance Investigation of the Arkansas River Valley

Abstract

<jats:p>The Formative Caddo Period (A.D. 850-1100) of eastern Oklahoma was marked by dramatic material and ritual changes, culminating in the construction of aggregated villages and ceremonial centers. Formative Caddo groups are notable for their highly complex and ritually-charged ceramic vessels that were unlike anything archeologists have seen in the American Southeast. Tracing the rapid development and spread of this early fine ware assemblage across a variety of social, ritual, and mortuary contexts is key to understanding the shared religious and ritual traditions of the pre-Columbian Arkansas River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages. Yet despite nearly 60 years of archeological research, insight is still lacking into the organization of Formative Caddo ceramic production and the mechanics of exchange between the northern and southern Caddo areas. While archeologists have shown Formative Caddo fine wares were locally produced in the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, they have assumed that Caddo people in Arkansas River valley and Ozark Plateau locally produced them. However, they are not recovered from the same contexts across both Caddo areas. Formative Caddo pottery is commonly found in both domestic and ritual contexts at Coastal Plain sites but are restricted to ritual contexts at ceremonial centers on the Ozark Plateau. The ritual contexts in which Formative Caddo ceramics are recovered are also quite different. At Coastal Plain ceremonial centers, such as George C. Davis in Texas and Crenshaw in Arkansas, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited in off-mound, on-mound, and mortuary contexts. Yet, at ceremonial centers of the Ozark Plateau, such as Spiro, Harlan, and Brackett in Oklahoma, Formative Caddo ceramics were deposited exclusively in mortuary contexts. The marked contrast between Formative Caddo pottery use and deposition between the northern and southern ceremonial centers provides insight into the development of Formative Caddo ritual practices and traditions. It suggests there may be fundamental differences in the ritual programs of the northern and southern Caddo areas. To examine the emergence and spread of these traditions, I am conducting a regional-scale study of the production and distribution of Formative Caddo pottery in the northern and southern Caddo areas. This project has two major components. First, it involves the analysis of clay chemical composition of 264 fine ware sherds from five ceremonial sites in the Arkansas River Basin. I applied for and was granted a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant to pay for Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) on these sherds. Once the INAA is completed, I will compare the Arkansas Basin results with previously generated elemental sourcing data from the Coastal Plain region. Secondly, this project involves a stylistic analysis of the forms and designs on 199 fine ware vessels to understand their overall design grammar and structure. The sites to be studied include Spiro, Harlan, Norman, Reed, and Brackett in the Arkansas River drainage and Crenshaw, Boxed Springs, George C. Davis, and Mounds Plantation in the Gulf Coastal Plain region. I hypothesize that either (1) Formative Caddo fine wares found in the Arkansas River basin were imported from the Red River valley and surrounding Coastal Plain drainages, where they were fabricated, or (2) Formative Caddo vessels were manufactured in the Arkansas River Basin, but intended use was restricted for mortuary purposes. Whether the first or second hypothesis is supported by this research, it will determine whether this is a single or separate communities of practice, and will have major implications for how we view the integration of these communities and the origins of Caddo ritual traditions.</jats:p>

Understanding the Rise of Complexity at Cahokia: Evidence of Nonlocal Caddo Ceramic Specialists in the East St. Louis Precinct

“…First, we compare vessel form and manufacturing techniques to see whether the vessels from Cahokia were constructed in the same manner as those made by Early Caddo potters to the west and south. Then, we establish their design grammar (i.e., the range of potters' design choices) through a hierarchical stylistic analysis (Early 2012;Lambert 2017Lambert , 2021a) and an analysis of vessel construction methods; for example, Caddo potters commonly used a slab construction method to construct bottle necks. Then, we compare the results to make the case that Caddo potters most likely immigrated to Cahokia.…”

“…Whereas Middle and Late Caddo potters (AD 1250-1690) produced a wide variety of forms and motifs (Girard et al 2014), Early Caddo potters used just a small subset of pottery forms on which to place repeating abstract curvilinear motifs. Lambert (2017Lambert ( , 2021aLambert ( , 2021bLambert ( , 2021c, working with almost 300 whole vessels in the northern and southern Caddo area, illustrated the range of vessel forms made by Caddo potters (Figure 3). There are five vessel groups: bottles, bowls, jars, beakers, and effigy vessels, with the last group being very rare in Early Caddo contexts.…”

“…Bottles and bowls have the widest range in vessel forms and shapes. Simple and more globular bottle forms (see Figure 3a-b) are the most commonly produced Early Caddo vessels, representing almost 33% (n = 99) of the assemblage that Lambert (2017) used in an earlier study. Another very important bottle form that occurs in both the northern and southern Caddo areas is a bottle with a pedestal base (see Figure 3e).…”

“…Another very important bottle form that occurs in both the northern and southern Caddo areas is a bottle with a pedestal base (see Figure 3e). This bottle type is a distinctly Caddo form with at least 20 whole-vessel examples, most of which are found in southern Caddo contexts at mound sites along the Red River Valley (see Lambert 2017Lambert , 2021a. At first glance, the pedestal base looks like a manufacturing accident, because Early Caddo potters used base molds to construct the bottle base, and it would have been easy for novice potters to cause the coiled clay to form or collapse over the base mold and create this distinct pedestalled look.…”

“…The curvature and placement of the motif do not make sense for it to be a bowl or jar. To maintain design symmetry in the repetition of the motif around the vessel, which was very important in Early Caddo design grammar, the globular portion of a bottle form is required (Lambert 2017).…”