American Indian Pottery on the Delmarva Peninsula: A Key to the Past

Daniel R. Griffith, Archaeological Society of Delaware, Inc

The study of pottery is one avenue to the history and culture of American Indian people. Since archaeologists in the Middle Atlantic first turned to pottery to help answer questions about the age of an archaeological site and its cultural affiliations, the approaches to such analysis have been continuously refined. Examining attributes of pottery like vessel form, decoration, exterior surface treatment or temper, archaeologists used stratigraphy and seriation, forms of relative dating, to place their pottery types in a chronological framework. Unfortunately for much of the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain, opportunities to develop chronological frameworks through stratified sites are rare and such frameworks lagged other areas of the country.

Beginning in the 1950's however, archaeologists had a new tool, radiocarbon dating. This new tool allowed archaeologists to derive an absolute date on carbon bearing materials associated with archaeologically defined pottery types. The initial radiocarbon dates on the early, provisional pottery types led to a refinement of the typology itself. Using the new dating technique, archaeologists focused on pottery attributes that were most sensitive to changes through time. As it turned out, combining the attributes of exterior surface treatment and temper, which define different technological styles, was the most reliable combination of attributes to define a temporally sensitive type (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Griffith, Daniel R. 2012 - Delaware American Indian Ceramics Radiocarbon Dates, in the Gray Farm Site: Phase II and Phase III Excavations on the Murderkill River (Sites 7K-F-11 and 7K-F-169); SR I Frederica North Grade Separated Intersections, Kent County, Delaware. Delaware Department of Transportation Archaeology Series, Dover, Delaware.

For most of Middle Atlantic prehistory, there is little but informative variation in overall

technological style of pottery manufacture. However, during the Late Woodland period (1000 CE - 1600CE) decoration on the exterior of pottery first became widespread. The introduction of decorative techniques like incising or cord impression led to an elaboration of decorative motifs known to archaeologists as symbolic style. During these six hundred years, trends in symbolic style show changes through time and space. One example is Townsend pottery, a shell tempered, fabric impressed or plain exterior surfaces technological style that is widespread on the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain from the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays south to the northern inland bays of North Carolina. Radiocarbon dating on separate

symbolic styles shows a trend from complex to simple decorative motifs (Figure 2). The changes in symbolic style seem to suggest that there was a move from expressing differences between people to styles that suggest unity or oneness.

Figure 2. Griffith, Daniel R. 2018 - The Contributions and Practice of Culture History in the Middle Atlantic Region, in Middle Atlantic Prehistory: Foundations and Practice, pgs. 207-218, Roman and Littlefield.

Another interesting pattern observed in the data is the distribution of Accokeek and Wolfe Neck pottery on the Delmarva Peninsula. Radiocarbon dating shows that these ceramic types are contemporary centered around 500 BCE. Analysis of several sites on the upper Eastern Shore of Maryland surveyed by Steve Wilke in the 1970's shows dense concentrations of Accokeek pottery with very few sherds of Wolfe Neck pottery present, while Wolfe Neck pottery bearing sites on the Delaware coast show no Accokeek pottery. These different technological styles clearly had different social histories in areas on the Delmarva Peninsula only sixty miles apart, suggesting that differences in watersheds at this scale were social boundaries of some type at that time.

Maryland colonial records of the 17th century clearly identify Indian communities within the

boundaries of the Maryland colony as well as recognizing numerous Indian Nations beyond the colony that interacted with each other. While analyzing pottery from sites on the upper Eastern Shore it was a surprise, to me at least, to identify a large quantity of Minguannan ceramics at two sites. Minguannan pottery, yet to be radiocarbon dated, is a Late Woodland type found predominantly in southeast Pennsylvania and northern Delaware and is typically associated with historically recognized Delaware Indian communities. What does the concentration of Minguannan pottery on the upper Eastern Shore mean? Why are the historic Delaware residing in towns away from the core of their territory? Such questions lead to exploring colonial accounts of interactions between the Delaware, Susquehannocks/Minquas and the trade in furs and European goods in the 17th century. How were the Delaware effected by this dynamic and did conflicts bring the makers and consumers of

Minguannan pottery to this area of Maryland?

There are many ways to examine pottery in archaeological research, yet to examine questions about time and cultures in space today's types serve quite well while begging for further refinement.