Plain Stamped, Shell Tempered Pottery From North Carolina

Extract

Like good wholesome gossip, one of the things that adds spice to the archaeologist's life is to find something that just isn't supposed to be. This is apparently what happened to me, although I did not realize the import of it until Joe Caldwell of the National Museum looked at the pottery excavated at the historic site of Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. In the preliminary exploratory trenches excavated there last spring, a considerable amount of Indian pottery was found. With the exception of a few plain sherds, all of it is simple-stamped decoration, and most of it is shell tempered (Fig. 52). The shell is largely leached out, but there is little doubt that this is the tempering medium. Sherds were found near the bottom of the ditch types is not apparent from the excavating thus far, although Caldwell is of the opinion that on the basis of the decorating they may very well be contemporaneous wares.