Figure 9. Jar Forms
Figure 10. Pottery Handles
Two handles have longitudinal grooves as decorations. One has three U-shaped incisions or grooves and the two nodes at the upper end. The other has 2 single central grooves ([Fig. 10]; Row 1, left).
Three sherds with handles have been classed tentatively at Matthews Incised (Griffin, 1952, Fig. 122;d). One example shows a hole through the flat upper portion of the strap and this was done while the clay was still plastic ([Fig. 10]). Two sherds have bifurcated handles, the other has been described as a loop handle. There are two pieces of fillet-tail handles and pieces of five others. These were not identifiable as to type.
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.