Pottery type
Athabascan Pottery
Athabascan Pottery1000 - 1900 A.D.Arctic/Sub-Arctic PotteryKey facts
- Age
- 1000 - 1900 A.D.
- Cultural period
- Arctic/Sub-Arctic Pottery
- Material
- Local clays tempered with sand, crushed rock, or organic inclusions; surfaces smoothed by hand or with simple paddles, rarely slipped or highly burnished.
Description
Athabascan Pottery includes relatively simple, utilitarian vessels made by Athabascan (Dene) groups in interior Alaska and northwestern Canada. Vessels are typically globular or conical jars with rounded bases, simple straight or slightly everted rims, and minimal decoration beyond smoothing or light tooling. Surfaces are often unevenly fired, with dark gray to black exteriors and sooted areas from cooking use.
Size
Common vessel diameters range from about 120 to 260 mm, with heights of roughly 120 to 250 mm. Walls are generally 5 to 10 mm thick, thickening toward the base for durability over fire.
Distribution
Found mainly in interior Alaska, the Yukon, and adjacent boreal forest regions of northwestern Canada, particularly along major river systems.
Additional information
Athabascan pottery is usually relatively late compared to earlier stone and organic technologies and often appears in Late Prehistoric and protohistoric contexts. Because decoration is minimal, identification relies heavily on context, paste, and vessel form.