SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

SMITHSONIAN

INSTITUTION BureauofAmerican Ethnology

Bulletin133

AnthropologicalPapers,No.22

An

Analysis

and

Interpretation of the

Ceramic Remains from

Two

Sitesnear Beaufort,

South

Carolina

By

JAMES

B. GRIFFIN

Assistant Curator,Museumof Anthropology, University ofMichigan

155

CONTENTS

PAGE

ChesterField 159

Typename: StaUings Plain 159

LakePlantation 162

Comparative statement 163

Summary 165

Bibliography 167

Explanationof plates 168

ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES

10. 1,Stallings Plain sherds from the Chester Field site. 2, StaUings Punctatesherdsfrom the ChesterFieldsite 168 11. 1,Stallings Punctate sherdsfrom the ChesterField site. 2, Check

Stamped and Cord MarkedsherdsfromtheLakePlantation 168 12. Miscellaneoussherdsfrom LakePlantationand two StallingsPunctate

sherdsfrom JonesIsland 168

157

AN ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CERAMIC REMAINS FROM TWO SITES NEAR BEAUFORT,

S. C.

By

JamesB. Griffin

Assistant Curator, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan

The

potteryin thisreportwasobtainedduring1933byafieldparty underthedirectionofDr.

W.

K. Moorehead. Shortlyafterthe field seasonwasover, theCeramicRepositoryreceived ashipmentofsherds fromboth the Chester Field site andfrom the

Lake

Plantation. In January 1941,Dr.Flanneryturned overto the CeramicRepository a seriesof sherdsfromthe Chester Fieldsiteand twosherdsfromasite

onJonesIsland. Itisassumedthatthepotteryavailable forstudyis representative of the total collections obtained from each site, for thebulkof thepotteryisintheCharleston

Museum.

CHESTER FIELD

The

Chester Field pottery is quite homogeneousin paste, temper, color,surfacefinish,andshape. Itbelongstothefiber-tempered ware, whichisapparently theoldestceramic horizonintheSoutheast.

The

best

known

site isthat on Stalhng's Island (Claflin, 1931) and the

name

ofthesitehasbeen giventothe pottery describedinthatreport asbelongingtothelowerlevel.

The

potteryfromthe Chester Field site is similar to that illustrated by Claflin and tothe sherds from Stalling's Islandin theCeramicRepository. It isalso verysimilar to the ware calledSaint Simons Fiber

Tempered

by Holder during hisexcavationsnear

Savannah

andtopotteryfromtheBilbositenear Savannah, whichwill be describedby Waring. Since the Stalling's Island site is theonly one

now

fully described in the literature, it is suggested that thenames Stallings Plain (pi. 10) and Stallings Punctate (pi. 11) be applied to the pottery ware described below fromtheChester Fieldsitewith thefullrecognition that theyarees- sentially the same product.

The

type description will be headed Stallings Plain, but, withthe exception of the decorative techniques describedbelow, the type description applies tobothdivisions.

TYPE name:

stallings plain Paste

Method _ofManufacture.

— A

^suggestion of coiling or ring building on some sherds,butitisnottooclear.

Temper.—Varying proportionsofa fiber which has almost uniformly disap- pearedinfiring, presenting a vesicularappearance. In some examplesthere is

159

160 BUREAU

OF AJVIERICAN

ETHNOLOGY

^{[Bull. 133}

a very small amount offiber whilein others the sherdis honeycombed. The majorityofsherdshavenonplastic inclusionsverymuchlike finegrains of sand, whichwereapparently inclusive in the clay. Some ofthe sherdshave rather large (2 to4mm.) particles of rock.

Texture.

—

Cross-sectionalappearanceismediumfinetomediumcoarse;granu- lariffairlylargesandparticlesare presentand honeycombedifa largeamount offiberwasused.

Hardness.

—

Theexteriorsurfacehardness rangesfrom2 to2.5. Themajority can be scratched bythe fingernail.

Color.

—

^Almostalwaysadark greytoblack corewith narrow,lighter,oxidized surface layer. The exterior surface whenoxidized ranges in theyellows and chocolatebrowns.

Surface Finish

Exterior is roughly smoothed with a porous surface or is compacted due to surface smoothing. Usually both surfaces are treated in the same manner.

Someof thesherds have an uneven surface, possiblycaused by an impressing technique somethinglike the so-calledSimple Stamping foundinthe Southeast.

Those specimenswhosesurfaceswere notwellcompactedmostclearlyshowthe channelsleftbythe disintegration of thefibertemper.

Decoration

None. Described undercompaniontype Stallings Punctate.

Form

Vesselsarefrom15to30 centimetersormore indiameter. Nowholevessels are known.

Rim.

—

Vertical to slightly incurving walls.

Up.

—

Most commonly narrowed and rounded. Rarely a flattened lip.

Body.

—

Bowlshape only one known. No angledrimsatChesterFieldsite.

Base.

—

Somewhatrounded to flattened.

Thickness.

—

Lip from 3 to 7 millimeters, rim and side wall from 0.6 to 1 centimeter,base^0.6to 1centimeter.

Appendages.

—

None. Examples ofcrack lacing (?) from Stalling'sIsland.

Usual Range of Type

Stalling'sIslandandrelatedsitesmentioned byClaflin. Atleastas farnorth along the coast as Charleston and south along the Georgia coast toward the St. John'sareaof Florida. Comparabletypes describedby Holmes, Griffin, and Haag. Also mentioned by Kelly.

Chronological Position of Type in Range

Firstpottery type at Stalling's Island, andWheeler and Pickwick Basins in northern Alabama. Foundinearly levels at Savannah and alongthe Atlantic coast. Generally thoughttobethe earliest pottery in the Southeast.

The

plain sherdsare in theminorityinthecollection attheCeramic Repositoryalthoughthiswasprobably not thecase atthe site.

The

accompanyingtable liststhe sherds availablefor study accordingto surface treatmentand decoration.

The

proportions would undoubt-

Antheop.Pap.no.22]CERAMICREMATlSrS,BEAUFORT,9.C. GTIIFMN 161 edlybechangedwiththecomplete sherd countfrom an archeological site ofthis horizon.

The

tabular presentation ofthevarious decora- tivestylesdoesserve, however,to indicatethe prevalence ofdifferent Jjindsof punctatingas thefavored decoratingtechnique.

The

mostprevalent punctating techniqueIhavecalled linearpunc- tate.

The

punchmarksareplacedina straight incised lineand were

made

at about a 45° angle to the surface.

They

are usually close together. Sometimes the punctates and the incised line were

made

aspart ofa singlecontinuous operation.

The

sizeof the individual punctated line varies from 3 to 7 millimeters wide and ^they are usually 2to3millimetersdeep.

The

linearpunctates aremostoften arranged in closely spacedrows which runparallel tothe lip.

The

nextmost

common

orientationistobeplacedvertically onthe outer surface.

Individual punctates of varyingshapesaresometimesarrangedin orderly horizontal and vertical rows. While sherds differed as to the type of punctate impression which was used, no sherd carried

more

than one type of individual punctate.

The

punctates include small hemispherical depressions; circular with conical base, and

many

of these have ridges suggesting they were

made

by small marine gastropods; hemiconical punctates; large semicircles, per- haps

made

byasplitreed;small, circularpunctates;finger-nailpunc- tates_;andhollow-cylinderpunctates.

The

individual punctates andthelinearpunctates areoftenfound onthesamesherd.

The

sizeofthe sherdslisted as incised in table 1 offers noguarantee that therewere not also punctates onthe same

vessel. While noneofthepotteryfromChester Fieldoffersgoodevi- dence oftheuseof incising as a soledecorative technique thesherds illustratedbyClaflin(1931)onplate 15doshowsuch treatment.

Most

of the sherdsonplate14ofthe reportonthe Stalling'sIsland

mound

havearoughenedsurfacesimilar tothatmentionedinthetypedescrip- tiongiven above ofStallings Plain. Itisvery suggestiveofthesur- face treatment widely called "simple stamping" by Southeastern archeologists.

Some

advantage wastaken of plain areasto separate linearpunctatedareasfromotherlinearpunctates orfrom groupsof individualpunctates.

Eelativelylittleuse

was made

ofa curvilineararrangementoflinear punctates, orindividualpunctatesin curved linesand nothingquite comparable to someof the patternsillustratedby Claflin (1931) on plates19and^20.

The

fiber-temperedwareat Stalling'sIslanditself is apparently

more

complex,i. e.,ithas

more

variety in surfacetreat-

ment

anddecoration, andin the angledrim possessesa modification of thebowl shapewhich is apparently absent at the Chester Field

site. WhileClaflinstatedthatthetemperingmaterialoftheStallings

162

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OF AlVIERICAN

ETHNOLOGY

[Bull. 133 types at Stalling's Island was primarily grit, that does not seem to be thecasewiththe relativelysmall

number

ofsherdsintheCeramic Repository fromthat site. All ofthe sherds belongingto theStal- lings types had varying amounts of fiber included in the paste.

Therearealso otherkindsofnonplasticmaterial intheclay includ- ing small quartz and other grit particles which, because of their rounded edges, were probably waterworn and inclusive in the clay beds. Thisisalsotrueof the Chester Fieldsherds.

The

twosherds

from

asiteon JonesIsland are StallingsPunctate specimens.

One

oftheseisa linearpunctateandthe otherisacurious paired punctate such as couldhavebeen producedbythe distalend of thefemurofasmall

mammal.

(Seepi. 12.)

LAKE PLANTATION

The

potteryin the Ceramic Repository from

Lake

Plantation is

assumedtobecharacteristicof thesiteas awhole (pi.12)^. Itpresents adecidedly ,morecomplex ceramic picturethandid the Chester Field

site.

The

accompanyingtablepresentsthe variationinsurfacetreat-

ment

and decoration found on sherds possessing different types of temperingmaterial.

On

the basis of other excavations in the Southeast, particularly those recently

made

by Holder (1938),

Fewkes

(1938),and Caldwell and

Waring

(1939),itcan besafelyassumedthatallofthesherdslisted above arenot assignable to a single cultural group at a singletime period.

As

has been mentioned above, the four sherds of the fiber-tempered ware belong in the Stalling's Island culture.

The

tentativesequence presentedby Caldwelland

Waring

(1939) forthe area around Savannah, which is contiguous to the Beaufort area, strongly suggests that the sherds called Deptford

and

perhaps those with simple stamping, belong in the first ceramic period following the fiber-tempered horizon.

The

majority of the rest of the sherdsbelong inthe

Savannah

period,buttheir exact allocation isdifficultdue to the paucitj^ ofthesherds andthe absence ofrims.

The

clay-tempered sherds that are probably closely related to Wilmington

Heavy Cord Marked

apparently belong somewhere in between the Deptford and Savannah periods.

One

of the plain, sand-temperedsherdshas theremainsofaredslip whichhas almost disappeared. It was probably applied after firing. This treatment isfoundinFloridapottery.

The

net-impressed sherdisan apparent anomalj'^ in this area.^

The

absence of pottery of the Irene period at this site is note- worthy.

The

Irene period began during the

Lamar

Focus period Holder (1938)reportsnet-impressedpottery at a tootiadontheuortb endofSeaIsland.

Anthrop.Pap.no.22] CERAMIC REMAINS, BEAUFORT, ^S.C. GRIFFIN 163 in centralGeorgia and continued into the historic period.

On

^the

basis of the available ceramic material,

we

would not expect to findEuropeantradegoodsat thissite.

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT

It is unfortunate that the artifactsobtained by

Moore

along the South Atlanticcoasthave not beenreexamined by students familiar with the current progress in the Southeast.

The

brief mention in hisreports ofsitesin the Beaufort areawhichyielded cord-marked sherds, or those withcord-marked and stamped sherds, are tantaliz- ingly indefinite.

The

siteswhichappealedto

Moore

wereusually the large,

more

complex units of the Irene or

Savannah

periods with the result that the majority of the pottery he illustrates does not belongtotheearlierperiodsfrom whichthepottery describedin this reportwas obtained.

A

reportonthearcheology ofasmall area near Charleston, S.

C,

shedssome lightonthe northerndistributionofsome ofthe pottery types.-

The

illustrations clearly indicate the presence of Stallings Punctate sherds with individual and linear punctates. There are also sherds related to the Deptford horizon and to Wilmington

Heavy

Cord Marked.

The

majority of the sherds, however, belong tothecomplicated-stamp group and range from the early Brewton Hill type

down

to the Irene Filfot

Stamp

type which comes into the historic period. This surmise ^is borne out by the presence of glassbeadsand European claypipesonthesite. Thus,ifthisarea was occupied by the Sewees alone at the early historicperiod and the Sewees were Siouan,

we

would have still another archeological complex to add to the already remarkably diversified material cul- tureremains of thatlinguistic stock. Ifthe occupants of the Charles- ton area

who

left the Irene

Complex

were Muskhogean, it would agree linguistically with the closely related sites in the central Georgiaarea.

It wouldbe advantageous tohave the archeological material at- tributedbyClaflin tothelaterperiodat Stalling'sIslandreexamined inthelightof recentSoutheastern developments.

As

Claflin (1931) pointed out, certain of the types attributed to the later period are found alone on other sites and the great variety of ceramics dis- cussed by

him

does not indicate cultural contemporaneity for the assemblageintheAugusta area.

Excavations in the

Savannah

area, the most recent of which has been by Waring, ^{indicates not only that the} fiber-tempered-ware

is the oldest, but that there is strong indication of stratigraphy

2Gregorie (1925). Arepresentative collection ofsherds fromthissiteintheCeramic Repositorycertifytotheaccuracyof thedrawingsin Dr. Gregorie's report.

164 BUREAU

OF AIVIERICAN

ETHNOLOGY

[Bull. 133 within thathorizon.^

At

the Bilbo site,

Waring

found no pottery in the lower level of a deep refuse midden. His second zone con- tained fiber-tempered plain ware while the third zone introduced a strong proportion of decorated fiber-tempered ware. In the top and surface zone

Waring

found sand-tempered pottery of the Dept- ford horizon with conical to round bases and some tetrapodal sup- ports.

The

restof the culturalitemsfrom this sitefitin well with the Stalling'sIsland complex.

The

excavations by Preston Holder (1938), on and near Saint SimonsIsland southofthe

mouth

ofthe

Altamaha

Kiver, uncovered considerable evidence of different archeological groups.

At

the Charlie

King

site, the fiber-tempered ware was predominant. Also present

was

a cord-marked tyi)e and a checked-stamp type.

The mound

described by Holder for this site was probably not erected by the makers of the fiber-tempered pottery.

The

Sea Island site yieldedahighpercent of net-impressed clay-tempered pottery while other sites showed a high proportion of fine cord-marked pottery and still others a dominance of complicated stamped ware of the Ireneperiod.

Inthe

Macon

area,Kelly (1938) hasmentionedthepresence of a fiber-temperedwareattheSwiftCreek,

One

MileTrack, Shell

Rock

Cave,

Macon

Plateau,andtheStubb's

Mound

andVillage Site.

He

suggests that it belongs in the Early Swift Creek period. Unless the central Georgia area sequence and cultural association differs fromthattotheeastandnorthwest,sucha contemporaneousceramic grouping would not be expected. However, the complete evidence on the sites from the

Macon

area has not been presented and until that time further speculation is not warranted. Other units of Kelly's early Swift Creek period such as the

Mossy Oak

Simple

Stamp

type, the plain plaited fabric pottery, plain-surface sherds, and early check-stamped types have been segregated in contiguous areas into

what

are apparently

more

meaningful cultural divisions.

Again, full comparative treatment must await

more

complete publication.

A

^small collection of pottery from Wilkes County, Ga., in the Ceramic Repository, indicates the presence of the fiber-tempered ware

up

the Savannah River Valleynorthwest of Augusta.

The

coastal areaofGeorgiaand SouthCarolinaform asignificant unitof the fiber-tempered ceramicware which is different from the St.Jolms development on the one

hand

andthe fiber-temperedware innorthwest

Alabama

ontheother. (Griffin,1939;Haag,1939.) In this latter area the ware has a plain surface, is simple stamped,

••Waring, T.,verbal report at the Fifth SoutheasternArchaeologicalConference,Baton Rouge,La.,1940.

Anthrop.PAP. NO.22] CERAMIC REMAINS, BEAUFORT, ^S.C. GRIFFIN 165 punctated, or dentate stamped.

The

simple stamping is somewhat more

common

than in the Stallings Island Focus,^ whilethere is a

marked

absence ofthe linearpunctateinthe Tennessee Valley.

The

individual punctating is not as varied in typenor as regularly ap- plied as in the Stallings Punctate specimens.

The

dentate stamp impressions form a distinctive Tennessee Valley ^style which

may

berelated to one ^styleofDeptford Linear Check Stamp. Itiscer- tainlyrelated tothe dentatestampof theearly

Woodland

and Hope- wellian potteryinthenorth.

From

theillustrationsof

Wyman

(1868) and

Holmes

(1894),^itis probable that the St. Johns area

had

significantly different fiber-

tempered types, which would certainly suggest a different cultural grouping ifnota differenttimehorizon.

The

strong use of incised decorationincluding the use ofa curvilinear scroll isnot compatible withthestyleof decorationinthe StallingsIslandFocusorinnorth- westAlabama. Thisdecorativestyleisusuallyfoundata

much

^later

time period. Unfortunately there are

no

examples of the fiber-

tempered ware fromeast Floridaavailable for directcomparison.

SUMMARY

The

pottery from the Chester Field site identifies it as a com- ponent of the same cultural division as the Stallings Island com-

])lex. Thisisthe oldestceramic horizonin the Southeast.

The

pot- tery from the

Lake

Plantation indicates greater cultural diversity andalongertime period of aboriginal occupation. It isrelated on theone

hand

tothe stamped wareof the Southeastand onthe other to thecord-marked pottery which is

common

throughoutthe entire area east ofthe

Kocky

Mountains.

Table ^1.

—

Fiber-temperedware fromtheChester Fieldsite

Type

166 BUREAU

OF

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[Bull. 133 Table2.

—

Fiber-temperedware fromthe Stalling'sIslandsite,from Ceramic RepositoryCollection

Type

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Caldwell, Joseph,andWaring, Tono,Jr.

1939. Theuseofaceramic sequencein the classification of aboriginalsites in ChathamCounty, Ga. NewsletterSoutheastern Archaeol. Con., vol.2,No. 1.

Claflin,W.H.,Jr.

1931. The Stalling's Island Mound, Columbia County, Ga. Pap. Peabody Mus. Amer. Archaeol. and Ethnol., vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 13-17, pis.

11-20.

F^WKES, V.J.

1938. W.P. A.excavationsat IreneMound,Savannah. Savannah Chamber Commerce.

Gbegoeie,AnneKing

1925. Notes onSeweeIndiansand Indian remains, Contr.Charleston Mus.

No. 5.

Grfffin,JamesB.

1939. Report ontheceramicsofWheelerBasin

m

Webb,W,S., An^archae-

ologicalsurveyofWheelerBasin ontheTennessee RiverinNorthern Alabama. Bur. Amer.Ethnol. Bull.122.

Haag,WilliamG.

1939. Pottery types from the Pickwick Basin. News letter Southeastern.

Archaeol. Con.,vol.1,No.1.

Holder,Preston

1938.Excavations on SaintSimonsIslandandvicinity. Proc. Soc.Georgia Archaeol.,vol.1,No.1.

Holmes,W.H.

1894. Earthenware of Florida: Collection of Clarence B. Moore. Journ.

Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia. 2d Ser., vol, 10, pt. 1, art. 2, pp.

105-128.

Kelly, ArthurR.

1938.

A

preliminary report on archeological explorations at Macon, Ga.

Anthrop. Pap. No. 1, Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 119.

Wyman,Jeffries

1938. On thefresh-water shellheapsofthe St. JohnsRiver, EastFlorida.

Amer.Nat., vol.2, No. 8,pp. 393-404. October; No.9,pp. 449-463, November.

405260—43 12 167

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[Bull. 133

EXPLANATION OF PLATES

Plate10

Figure^1.

—

StallingsPlainsherdsfromtheChesterFieldsite.

a,6, Bowlrimswithwellcompactedouter surface.

c. Bowlrim withthesmallchannelsofburned-outfiberclearlyvisible.

d,e,Bodysherds withroughenedsurface orsimplestamping.

/,Bodysherdwithwellsmoothedsurface. (U.M. M.A. 42S7.) Figure2.

—

StallingsPunctate sherdsfromtheChesterFieldsite.

a-c, Bowl rims with individual punctates.

d, Incised.

e, /,h-j,Bodysherds withsinglepunctates.

g, Pinchedstyleofpunctate.

k, I,Fingernailindividualpunctate.

m,Cord-marked body sherdwhichmaynot belongto the Stalling'sIsland Fo- cus. (U. M. M. A. 4288.)

Plate11

Figure1.

—

StallingsPunctate sherdsfromtheChesterFieldsite.

(i-g. Bowlrims with variousstylesof linearpunctates.

li,Individualpunctatesplacedunusuallylow onouter rim.

i,Bodysherdcombinationof incisedandlinearpunctate.

i,k, andm, Variousstylesof linearpunctate onbodysherds.

I,Finger punctateandlinearpunctateonsamesherd. (U.M. M. A. 4289.) Figure2.

—

Check stamped andCordMarkedsherdsfromtheLakePlantation.

a, h,Deptford BoldCheek Stamp.

c, Deptford Linear Check Stamp.

d-f,CheckStampsherdsprobablyofDeptfordhorizon.

g-k,Cord-marked body sherds with sand andgrit aplastic.

l-o, Clay tempered Wilmington Heavy Cord Marked sherds. (U. M. M. A.

4280.)

Plate12

MiscellaneoussherdsfromLake Plantationand two StallingsPunctate sherds from JonesIsland.

a, b, Plain surface sand-tempered rims.

c, Net impressed.

d, Fugitivered,sand-tempered body sherd.

e-h,Sand-andgrittempered sherds with simplestampimpressions.

i-j, Indistinctcomplicated stamp sherds with grittemper.

k,I,StallingsPunctatesherdsfromasiteon JonesIsland. (U.M. M.A. 4201.)