Fibre-tempered pottery of the Stallings Island Culture from the Crescent site, Beaufort County, South Carolina: a mineralogical and petrographical study

Abstract

Abstract Late Archaic to Early Woodland (4500–3000 years bp ) Stallings Island Culture fibre-tempered plainware pottery is found from northern North Carolina to NW Florida and is often separated into two temper groups (Stalling and Orange series) based upon fibre type. Thirty-four sherds were studied to determine textural or mineralogical characteristics to assist in form and type separation. This study finds that only a few of the sherds were dominated by fibre. The fibre is visible as secondary porosity (voids) with some carbonized remains and exhibits specific shape and orientation at different locations within the sherd. Only two sherds had carbonized stem fragments that allowed identification of the Spanish moss ( Tillandsia usnedoides ). The remainder of the Crescent site plainware pottery has such low (to no) fibre contents as to be indistinguishable from similar age sand-tempered Thom’s Creek wares. The identity and textural features of the fine-grained aplastic minerals (quartz, feldspar, biotite and opaque minerals) in the paste are similar in both fibre- and non-fibre-tempered sherds, and this suggests that the materials used are consistent with sediment extraction from a fluvial coastal plain or estuarine setting. These observations indicate that the degree of fibre incorporation in these sherds may be related to the specific clay source (or manufacturing location) or represent examples of an evolving pottery manufacturing process within the Stallings Island Culture.