Effigies
Five modeled effigy pottery decorations or attachments were found in the general excavations. Two were painted while the other three were of Neeley’s Ferry paste. One was a human effigy of the full face with a rounded open mouth, quite large and prominent nose and eyes defined only by overhanging brows ([Fig. 11]). The hair arrangement was similar to bangs indicated along the line of the top of the forehead. One of the painted heads was of a bird, perhaps turkey, showing a trace of red, white and black paint. This could possibly be a negative painted sherd but the evidence was not conclusive. The other painted effigy was Old Town Red and apparently represented some bird form. The other two forms may have been bats and seem to have been facing inside the vessel.
Almost the entire shell tempered pottery complex is of Neeley’s Ferry Plain with an extensive use of strap handles on large jars, many of which were of six to eight gallons capacity ([Fig. 9], center). These handles were normally paired and on opposite sides of the vessel. Decorated types are extremely rare, in all less than 2% of the sherds. Of these Old Town Red comprises more than 50%.
Add the small percentage of Carson Red on Buff and Nodena Red and White and these account for over 60% of all decorated types ([Fig. 12]). Of the balance, only a sprinkling of incised types, one possibly Wallace Incised, are present ([Fig. 13]). These low totals are possibly accounted for by considering them trade pieces rather than local techniques, or perhaps outside ideas of decoration that had not become fully accepted. One form of local decoration which shows an increase when complete vessels are considered is the pushing out of small areas around the pot to form rounded nodes or projections. Associated with some of these large jars was a crude incising around the shoulder area which was a very poor imitation of the Barton Incised of the St. Francis area. This is very suggestive of a new idea in decoration with little real interest in technical achievement. That these people were skilled enough in ceramics to have done fine work is attested to by the elaboration of workmanship in the strap handle assemblage.
Figure 11. Human Effigy Head
Figure 12. Painted Pottery
(1. A large shallow bowl with red painted design on buff background, painted areas intensified with water color, 2. Carson Red on Buff)
Figure 13. Decorated Pottery Sherds
Vessel Forms
It was possible to identify vessel forms from 3.4% of the shell tempered sherds collected. These forms are listed and their frequency of occurrence shown in [Table 4], Column I. The most common forms were the wide mouthed bowl of small to medium size and wide mouthed jars which showed extreme variation in size from small jars of perhaps a pint capacity to very large ones of several gallons capacity ([Fig. 9]). Water bottles were a very uncommon form of vessel if judged from the sherd collection.
Among the complete vessels recovered the water bottle was over 50% of the total while the sherd collection yielded only 1.3 of this class ([Table 4]). This is a strong example of a mortuary vessel form which found little use in the daily domestic scene. The water bottle at Lawhorn was apparently not a vessel of utility to the living but only to the dead.
| TABLE 4—COMPARISON OF DOMESTIC AND MORTUARY VESSEL FORMS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Column I | Column II | Column III | |
| Vessel Shape | Vessel Shape From Sherds | Vessel Shape 31 Vessels | Vessel Shape 23 Mortuary Vessels |
| Water Bottles | 1.3 | 45 | 52 |
| Shallow Bowls | 6.3 | 13 | 13 |
| Deep Bowls | 37 | 30 | 26 |
| Plates | 1.8 | 0 | 0 |
| Jars | 49 | 13 | 9 |
| Salt Pans (?) | 2.5 | 0 | 0 |
| Flat Bases | 3.3 | 61 | 65 |
The vessel forms found at Lawhorn can be described as bowls, jars and water bottles.
BOWLS:
Three pottery bowls have almost vertical sides with flat bases ([Fig. 14];1, 2, 3) while one very crude vessel with vertical sides is round bottomed. Three of the bowls are quite shallow, approaching the plate form but lacking the flattened plate rim ([Fig. 14];5). The plate forms identified for Lawhorn were from the sherd collection and these represent 1.8% of the identified shapes. Four other bowls are small round-bottomed pots typical of the Memphis-St. Francis Mississippian groups.
The only recovered vessel showing painted decoration were two shallow bowls. One of these was Carson Red on Buff slipped on both the inside and outside surface ([Fig. 12];1). It is a very shallow bowl with a diameter of 3 cm. and a depth of 8 cm. The lip was flat and scalloped around the outer edge. The interior had been painted with a red design composed of four large triangles drawn as opposing parts so that on two the apex was up while on the other pair it was down.
Figure 14. Bowls
(1-3. Straight sided bowls with flat bases, 4. Old Town Red slipped shallow bowl, 5. A typical shallow bowl)
JARS:
Jars range in size from small vessels of perhaps a pint capacity to vessels of several gallons. Only the smaller jars occurred as burial furniture, however. The larger jars have been reconstructed from sherds found in refuse pits and so are part of the domestic complex. Most of the jars have some form of strap handle and seem to have been the only vessel form decorated by incising or by punching out nodes. Such examples of incising as are evidenced in this collection are very poorly executed ([Fig. 9]).
WATER BOTTLES:
This vessel form was very largely a mortuary form with little apparent value on the domestic scene. This is particularly true of the long, narrow necked vessels. These often showed specialized or individualized treatment by the addition of ridges or collars of clay at the base of the neck, occasionally at the midpoint of the body ([Fig. 15];2) and by the variation of treatment of the base so that in this collection no one form could be called standard. There was a tendency, however to flatten and then indent the bottom of the bottles. Other basal embellishments included a narrow truncated base and angular forms ([Fig. 15];1, 2, 3, 4). Our most interesting bottle was found on the floor of house three ([Fig. 15];5). It was crudely made but uniquely shaped—reminiscent almost of a Grecian urn. An elongated globular body with a short and narrow neck. Strap handles run from the rim to the shoulder, but not out to its full width.
Figure 15. Water Bottles