Caddo Engraved Pottery

“Caddo Engraved” is a broad category for finely made Caddoan pottery with engraved designs on smoothed or burnished surfaces. Vessel forms include bottles, carinated bowls, and jars with long necks, often exhibiting complex geometric, scroll, and banded motifs around rims and shoulders. Lines are usually narrow and precise, sometimes filled with red or white pigment.

Bottles and bowls often fall between 120 and 260 mm in diameter and 150 to 300 mm in height, with walls typically 3 to 6 mm thick. Large ceremonial vessels may be somewhat larger but follow the same thin-walled, well-finished tradition.

Caddoan engraved wares occur throughout the Caddo area: northeastern Texas, southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, and eastern Oklahoma, especially near major river systems.

Different named types (Belcher Engraved, Ripley Engraved, etc.) fall within this broader engraved Caddo tradition, and specialists separate them based on motif layout, rim form, and regional style. In your app, a general “Caddo Engraved” record can help users who cannot yet resolve to a more specific named type.