Pottery type
Mississippian Shell-Tempered Pottery
Mississippian Shell-Tempered800 – 1600 A.D.Mississippian PotteryKey facts
- Age
- 800 – 1600 A.D.
- Cultural period
- Mississippian Pottery
- Material
- Clay tempered heavily with crushed freshwater mussel shell. Shell particles burn out during firing, leaving a porous but strong ceramic matrix. Surfaces are generally well-smoothed.
More from the Mississippian period
Description
Mississippian Shell-Tempered pottery represents the dominant ceramic technology of the Mississippian cultural period. Vessels typically include globular jars with flaring rims, hemispherical bowls, bottles, and simple utility forms. Surfaces are usually plain or lightly burnished, sometimes showing faint smoothing or tooling. Shell temper creates a lighter, more durable ceramic body that fires to tan, brown, or gray tones depending on the atmosphere.
Size
Jars usually range 20–35 cm tall; bowls range 14–28 cm in diameter. Wall thickness averages 4–7 mm due to the efficiency of shell temper.
Distribution
Found throughout the Mississippian world along the Mississippi River, Ohio River, and their tributaries — including major mound centers and small homesteads.
Additional information
Shell tempering is one of the most diagnostic traits of Mississippian ceramics. It spreads rapidly after about A.D. 800 and remains standard across most of the Southeast and Midwest.