Pottery shards from the creek bed

redneck_billcollector

Purveyor Of Fine Spirits
What about the patterns indicate they might be Cherokee?

There is nothing about these patterns to indicate Cherokee pottery. Patterns are not as reliable indicators as the tempering style, some patterns were widely popular throughout large swaths of the southeast, others remained very localized. Plus they appear to be grit tempered (using rather course grit) so therefore predate the formation of the Cherokee nation. The Cherokees used shell tempering procedures (when they made pottery, once again, early on they used more trade goods than clay pots). The tempering and stamp style looks to be either late woodland period or Mississippian period, once again pre-dating the Cherokees.
 
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