During the 1982 excavations on the Lawson Site, museum archaeologists discovered on of the more interesting deposits of pottery fragments yet encountered on the site. The pot sherds were interesting not only because we have been able to reconstruct them into a very large pot but especially because of the location of the fragments and what they were found with.

The pottery fragments were in the bottom of a large pit found inside the largest house yet uncovered on the site. This pit was located under the south bench row near the east end of the house. In shape, the pit was a flat-bottomed cylinder. During excavation, it was first though that this feature was a deep basin-shaped pit, but it was discovered to have a false bottom like a previous feature uncovered.

The overall pit contents include ceramics, chipped lithics, a hammerstone, modified bone, bone fragments, and carbonized plant remains. There was a small pottery concentration in the upper portion of the pit, but the most productive part of the feature was the lower portion. The bottom of the pit was lined with many pottery fragments. The sherds had been purposefully placed around the edges and bottom of the pit in the same way that one would use the tile fragments to line the bottom of a flower pot.

Resting above the main sherd concentration were the articulated radius and ulna of a black bear showing cutting and chewing marks on the bone. Below the main pottery concentration was a complete upper carapace of a turtle, unfortunately warped from resting upside down on a fist sized rock.

The pot fragments found lining the bottom of the pit were glued together to form almost two thirds of the large pottery vessel depicted in the above photo. The rim of the pot had multiple castellation’s but was completely undecorated (Niagara collared type), a common style of pottery on the Lawson Site.

Update: New digital technology allows us to reconstruct these pottery pieces virtually as opposed to physically which promotes the conservation and longevity of the original artifacts.

Originally featured in Palisade Post 1988 Vol.8 no.3

by Dave Smith