Overview

Finely decorated ceramic vessels made for cooking, storage, and serving were a hallmark of Native Caddo cultures. The tradition began as many as 3,000 years ago among Woodland-period ancestors, thrived between c. 800 and 1800, and continues today in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. In Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions, eighteen experts offer a comprehensive assessment of recent findings about the manufacture and use of Caddo pottery, touching on craft technology, artistic and stylistic variation, and links between ancestral production and modern artistic expression. Part I discusses the evolution of ceramic design and morphology in the Caddo Archaeological Area by geographic region: southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, southeastern Oklahoma, and East Texas. It also gives focused study to the salt-making industry and its associated pottery. Part II features ceramic studies employing state-of-the-art techniques such as geochemical analysis, fine-grained analysis of stylistic elements, iconography, and network analysis. These essays yield increased understanding of specialized craft production and long-distance exchange; decorative variation at community and regional scales to reveal past communities of practice and identity; ancient Caddo cosmological and religious beliefs; and geographical variation in vessel forms. In Part III, two contemporary Caddos furnish an important Native perspective. Drawing on personal experience, they explore meaning and inspiration behind modern pottery productions as a cultural strategy for the persistence of community and identity. The first volume of its kind for Caddo archaeology, Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Traditions is also a valuable reference on ceramic practices across the broader southeastern archaeological region.

Full Product Details

9780807171189

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Duncan P. McKinnon is assistant professor of anthropology and director of the Jamie C. Brandon Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of The Battle Mound Landscape: Exploring Space, Place, and History of a Red River Caddo Community in Southwest Arkansas and coeditor of Archaeological Remote Sensing in North America: Innovative Techniques for Anthropological Applications. Jeffrey S. Girard is the former regional archaeologist for the Louisiana Division of Archaeology and a retired faculty member of Northwestern State University. He is the author of The Caddos and Their Ancestors: Archaeology and the Native People of Northwest Louisiana and coauthor of Caddo Connections: Cultural Interactions within and beyond the Caddo World. Timothy K. Perttula is the manager of Archeological & Environmental Consultants in Austin, Texas. He is the author of The Caddo Nation: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives; coauthor of Caddo Connections and Caddo Landscapes in the East Texas Forests; editor of The Prehistory of Texas; and coeditor of The Archaeology of the Caddo.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available