Tchefuncte people were the first Indians in Louisiana to make large amounts of pottery. They rolled coils of clay into shape and then smoothed them to form a container. Many shapes of pots were made, but characteristically they had “footed” bases. The Indians often decorated the vessels by pressing fingernails, twigs or tools into the surface or by rocking a small tool across the wet clay. After decorating the pots, they fired them by slow baking.
Later Indians almost always kneaded the clay thoroughly and mixed it with a small amount of another substance, called temper. These two steps strengthened the clay and helped prevent it from shrinking unevenly and cracking. Tchefuncte potters often omitted these steps, perhaps because they were unaware of their importance, or perhaps because clay was available and they could easily make another vessel if one cracked.
The introduction of pottery was an important improvement in food storage. When these pots were kept covered, they provided a relatively dry and animal-proof container that was portable. This made it easier to store food in times of plenty for use in leaner times. The Tchefuncte pots also meant that stewing and other new cooking techniques could be experimented with and developed for the first time.
Tchefuncte: a-d, Vessel Rim Sherds; e-f, Vessel Footed Bases; g, Clay Pipe; h, Stone Point; i, Stone Axe; j, Bone Fishhook; k, Antler Point (½ actual size)
Most of the other utensils and tools that Tchefuncte Indians used were very similar to those that Poverty Point Indians made. These included smoking pipes; stone, bone, and antler spear points; ground stone atlatl weights; mortars; bone fishhooks; clay cooking balls; and other butchering, hideworking, and woodworking tools.
In contrast to Poverty Point Indians, the Tchefuncte Indians did not specialize in making stone beads, pendants, or microtools, and they did not usually import materials to make tools and ornaments. Although some innovations from the Poverty Point Culture were carried over, most Tchefuncte tools and most Tchefuncte settlement patterns resemble those of the Meso-Indians.
The majority of the information about this era comes from coastal regions of the state. Archaeologists are not sure how Indians in the rest of Louisiana were living at this same time, but it is likely that their culture somewhat resembled that of the Tchefuncte Indians.
Marksville
Sometime after 200 B.C., Indians of the highly influential Hopewell Culture, centered in Ohio and Illinois, sent representatives throughout the eastern United States. By at least the first century A.D., groups of Louisiana Indians had met these travelers and had learned about their culture. Hopewell people had powerful leaders who supervised a cult centered around lavish burial rituals. Leaders organized construction of large mounds in which certain high-status people were buried along with exquisitely crafted objects made of copper, stone, bone, shell, pottery, and rare minerals.