Pottery dreams and local strata.

The following blurb was posted (by I) in a google pottery group:

I was an Anthro./Archaeology student throughout university and for several summers in the field.

One of the most intriguing changes in the material culture of the region since the last ice age is the shift from non-pottery Palaeo and Archaic cultures

to the earliest pottery of the Middle Woodland period; a culture that we call "Laurel" (for Laurel, MN).
These earliest potteries were thick, conical, coarse and probably built upside down.


Later pottery became thin, huge and fragile. Seeming impossibly fragile works, textured with cordage, stones, paddles, stamps, polished agates, sticks and and the damp hand.


Perhaps 200 years ago, the last potteries go extinct, chased away by the spun copper kettles lined with tin, cast iron bathtub-like cauldrons and the occasional pieces of glass.

There is a thin smear of Iroquoian and Siouan pottery just under today's surface; flimsy evidence of historic migrations and escape routes as people were chased north and west by Europe and the beaver trap.

That's why I'm going to start relearning, shaping and firing again.
Just need a still day, bone dry greenware and a lotta hardwood.
I'll post the process as the projects start.

:Eric

Updates to Large Canvas (click to enlarge):










Current detail


Current detail


Current detail


Current detail


Working sketch



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Fort Frances,northwestern ontario