  Pottery from the Lawhorn site represents two distinct traditions. By far the biggest is the standard shell tempered ware of this area, while a minor type is a sand tempered ware present as a plain, cord marked and textile marked series. The total sherd count was 10,423 of all types of which 9461 or 91% were of the familiar Mississippian shell tempered types and 962 or 9% were of the sand tempered series. Sand TemperedThe sand tempered series are summarized in Table 1. Similar plain and cord marked sherds (Fig. 5) have been called Barnes, (Williams, 1956, p. 204). The textile marked sherds can now be added to this series (Figs. 6-7). The cord marked sherds ranged from very coarse to quite fine markings, but definitely favored the coarse variety. The 534 textile marked sherds yielded 293 (55%) that were clear enough to identify the weave. These show the preponderate of simple twined textiles. It is of interest that the simple twined textiles seem to have a diagonal weft, or at least, in the finished piece as it was applied to wet clay vessels, to show this diagonal weave characteristic. The twisting and twining of the cords however seem to be typically simple twined (Fig. 7). Edward G. Scully and Stephen Williams first named the Barnes series while working for the University of Michigan’s Central Mississippi Valley survey on Barnes ridge in southeastern Missouri. Williams later defined the type (Williams, 1956, Ph.D. Dissertation) as follows:
The sand tempered sherds at Lawhorn answer to this description, but the question of vessel shape is left unanswered. One possible basal sherd was cord marked and conical in shape. The characteristic of a folded rim in the cord marked group was not identified in the Lawhorn series. Figure 5. Cord Marked Sherds and Positive Impressions Figure 6. Sand Tempered Textile Marked Sherds and Clay Impressions Showing Simple Twining Weave with Diagonal Pattern of Warp and Weft. Figure 7. Sand Tempered Textile Marked Sherds and Impressions Speaking of sand tempered wares generally and fabric impressed specifically, as an early Woodland movement into the south from the north, Griffin and Sears indicate a relatively early period within the total ceramic horizon of the southeast. In most areas the textile marked tradition dies out by Middle Woodland times. Williams’ description would seem to equate Barnes Cord Marked with Mulberry Creek Cord Marked, which reached its peak during a Middle Woodland period although also present at an earlier time. All this is of some help in establishing a chronological position for the sand tempered series within the known cultural sequences of this region. It might be construed as adding strength to the belief that there was a considerable time span between the sand tempered and shell tempered wares of the Lawhorn site, and suggests an Early Woodland period of occupation with the sand tempered pottery and the assorted dart points as the only remaining evidence of the early period.
Shell TemperedThe shell tempered series was 98.7% Neeley’s Ferry Plain and 1.3% decorated in some fashion. These can be summarized as follows in Table 2. All type definitions for the shell tempered series are from Phillips, Ford, Griffin, 1951, Section III.
The inclusion of a Bell Plain Type is so tentative as to be questionable. The few sherds so classified are better considered as a refinement of Neeley’s Ferry Plain. This viewpoint receives additional support with the statement that there was considerable variation in the workmanship shown on Neeley’s Ferry ware, some being well polished and with a finer shell temper. Some sherds that were first thought to be clay tempered were later determined to be shell tempered with the shell leached out. There was almost no lip decoration in the form of nicking or notching. The standard treatment was simply a rounded lip smoothed to the inside and outside vessel walls. AppendagesHandles and lugs accounted for 1.4% of the sherd count. Of the identifiable pieces and whole specimens, there are 17 lugs, 2 loop handles, 2 intermediate and 49 strap handles. The lugs showed considerable variation and specialization which may be a local development. The Monette lug, as this local type has been called, is basically a U shaped applique with the ends pointing downward (Fig. 8;1-2). One example was well squared and gives the appearance of an old European churn handle. According to Nash, the cup lug is this same form inverted and these do occasionally turn up in less exaggerated form on the Lower St. Francis River sites. Eight of the lugs are rounded and are molded to the lip. Two are effigy tail lugs one of which was riveted to the vessel rim (Fig. 8;4). The other has a node in the center, outlined by an incised line. Two lugs are rounded and bifurcated. (Table 3). Figure 8. Pottery Handles and Lugs
The loop handle was uncommon and quite small. One was made up of two strands or coils of clay loosely twisted to form the loop. The other is a simple loop that rises above the lip. Both attach to and are possibly riveted to the lip. They attach from lip to upper shoulder area. Two handles are intermediate between loop and strap. One is attached below the lip. The other is attached at the lip and has a node at the top of the handle. By far the most common appendage form was the strap handle and these were first divided into three sub groups based on profile shape to show attachment to the vessel wall (Fig. 8;6, 7, and 8). These handle forms, like many of the lug forms, show a high percentage of attachment to the vessel body wall by means of riveting (Fig. 8;3). They are molded to the rim. Of the total of 51 handles, 49 were strap handles. The handles vary from angular to curved in cross-section (Fig. 8;6, 7, 8). These are all simple, unmodified strap handles that have the following variations; 4 are parallel sided, 2 expand toward the lip attachment, 1 expands toward the shoulder attachment and four are undetermined in outline. One has an extension of a notched lip decoration across the top of the handle at the lip attachment. Twenty-eight handles are bifurcated by nodes or an elevation of the sides to form a ridge on the outer edges and sometimes to give the appearance of a groove down the center (Fig. 9). Often there are ear-like projections on either side, 20 occurring at the top of the strap, but eight lower down toward midpoint (Fig. 10) are less common. All are parallel sided and join at or just below the lip and attach to the shoulder. All seem to be riveted to the shoulders, but molded to the lip. One is angular and has an applique transverse ridge in the center of the handle (Fig. 10). Two strap handles have three fillets below the handle and extending from it; one on each side and one from the center of the handle. One of the two appears to have a small raised node on one side (Fig. 10; Row 2, right). A similar handle has only two fillets extending below it. The handle edges are raised; the fillet appears to extend the raised edges onto the shoulders. The top of the handle is flattened and vertically perforated through the flat portion (Fig. 10; Row 2, left). Another handle, similar in profile to that previously described, does not have the added fillets, but has the flattened top and vertical perforation. The handle is on a rim sherd decorated with a single U-shaped horizontal line along the neck. Figure 9. Jar Forms Figure 10. Pottery Handles Two handles have longitudinal grooves as decorations. One has three U-shaped incisions or grooves and the two nodes at the upper end. The other has 2 single central grooves (Fig. 10; Row 1, left). Three sherds with handles have been classed tentatively at Matthews Incised (Griffin, 1952, Fig. 122;d). One example shows a hole through the flat upper portion of the strap and this was done while the clay was still plastic (Fig. 10). Two sherds have bifurcated handles, the other has been described as a loop handle. There are two pieces of fillet-tail handles and pieces of five others. These were not identifiable as to type. EffigiesFive modeled effigy pottery decorations or attachments were found in the general excavations. Two were painted while the other three were of Neeley’s Ferry paste. One was a human effigy of the full face with a rounded open mouth, quite large and prominent nose and eyes defined only by overhanging brows (Fig. 11). The hair arrangement was similar to bangs indicated along the line of the top of the forehead. One of the painted heads was of a bird, perhaps turkey, showing a trace of red, white and black paint. This could possibly be a negative painted sherd but the evidence was not conclusive. The other painted effigy was Old Town Red and apparently represented some bird form. The other two forms may have been bats and seem to have been facing inside the vessel. Almost the entire shell tempered pottery complex is of Neeley’s Ferry Plain with an extensive use of strap handles on large jars, many of which were of six to eight gallons capacity (Fig. 9, center). These handles were normally paired and on opposite sides of the vessel. Decorated types are extremely rare, in all less than 2% of the sherds. Of these Old Town Red comprises more than 50%. Add the small percentage of Carson Red on Buff and Nodena Red and White and these account for over 60% of all decorated types (Fig. 12). Of the balance, only a sprinkling of incised types, one possibly Wallace Incised, are present (Fig. 13). These low totals are possibly accounted for by considering them trade pieces rather than local techniques, or perhaps outside ideas of decoration that had not become fully accepted. One form of local decoration which shows an increase when complete vessels are considered is the pushing out of small areas around the pot to form rounded nodes or projections. Associated with some of these large jars was a crude incising around the shoulder area which was a very poor imitation of the Barton Incised of the St. Francis area. This is very suggestive of a new idea in decoration with little real interest in technical achievement. That these people were skilled enough in ceramics to have done fine work is attested to by the elaboration of workmanship in the strap handle assemblage. Figure 11. Human Effigy Head Figure 12. Painted Pottery Figure 13. Decorated Pottery Sherds Vessel FormsIt was possible to identify vessel forms from 3.4% of the shell tempered sherds collected. These forms are listed and their frequency of occurrence shown in Table 4, Column I. The most common forms were the wide mouthed bowl of small to medium size and wide mouthed jars which showed extreme variation in size from small jars of perhaps a pint capacity to very large ones of several gallons capacity (Fig. 9). Water bottles were a very uncommon form of vessel if judged from the sherd collection. Among the complete vessels recovered the water bottle was over 50% of the total while the sherd collection yielded only 1.3 of this class (Table 4). This is a strong example of a mortuary vessel form which found little use in the daily domestic scene. The water bottle at Lawhorn was apparently not a vessel of utility to the living but only to the dead.
The vessel forms found at Lawhorn can be described as bowls, jars and water bottles. BOWLS:Three pottery bowls have almost vertical sides with flat bases (Fig. 14;1, 2, 3) while one very crude vessel with vertical sides is round bottomed. Three of the bowls are quite shallow, approaching the plate form but lacking the flattened plate rim (Fig. 14;5). The plate forms identified for Lawhorn were from the sherd collection and these represent 1.8% of the identified shapes. Four other bowls are small round-bottomed pots typical of the Memphis-St. Francis Mississippian groups. The only recovered vessel showing painted decoration were two shallow bowls. One of these was Carson Red on Buff slipped on both the inside and outside surface (Fig. 12;1). It is a very shallow bowl with a diameter of 3 cm. and a depth of 8 cm. The lip was flat and scalloped around the outer edge. The interior had been painted with a red design composed of four large triangles drawn as opposing parts so that on two the apex was up while on the other pair it was down. Figure 14. Bowls JARS:Jars range in size from small vessels of perhaps a pint capacity to vessels of several gallons. Only the smaller jars occurred as burial furniture, however. The larger jars have been reconstructed from sherds found in refuse pits and so are part of the domestic complex. Most of the jars have some form of strap handle and seem to have been the only vessel form decorated by incising or by punching out nodes. Such examples of incising as are evidenced in this collection are very poorly executed (Fig. 9). WATER BOTTLES:This vessel form was very largely a mortuary form with little apparent value on the domestic scene. This is particularly true of the long, narrow necked vessels. These often showed specialized or individualized treatment by the addition of ridges or collars of clay at the base of the neck, occasionally at the midpoint of the body (Fig. 15;2) and by the variation of treatment of the base so that in this collection no one form could be called standard. There was a tendency, however to flatten and then indent the bottom of the bottles. Other basal embellishments included a narrow truncated base and angular forms (Fig. 15;1, 2, 3, 4). Our most interesting bottle was found on the floor of house three (Fig. 15;5). It was crudely made but uniquely shaped—reminiscent almost of a Grecian urn. An elongated globular body with a short and narrow neck. Strap handles run from the rim to the shoulder, but not out to its full width. Figure 15. Water Bottles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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