Fredrick Check Stamped Pottery. Pottery. 1680-1710. Excavating Occaneechi Town. Research Laboratories of Archeology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Accessed October 4, 2018. https://rla.unc.edu/dig/html/part3/tab1.html

                 The Fredrick Check Stamped pottery was a prominent type of pottery used primarily by the Occaneechi tribe located along the Eno River near Hillsboro and present day Chapel Hill [1]. The pottery was discovered during the excavation of the Fredrick site, which revealed that the pottery as well as the Occaneechi tribe occupied the area from about 1680-1710 [2]. However, the UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology revealed that the check stamped pottery from the Fredrick site closely resembled the check stamped pottery from the Hillsboro period, which dates from 1400-1600, suggesting that this type of pottery has been used by natives for hundreds of years [3].

The pottery primarily functioned as a cooking vessel. Since it was used for hundreds of years, the design was likely effective for cooking. The thickness of the vessel, soot residue, and evidence of carbonized organic material provide further evidence for the pottery’s use as cooking vessels [4]. Almost all vessels had dark surfaces and contained dark grey or black interiors. This is consistent with their function for cooking because the soot and charring likely influenced the color of the vessel, making it darker. These vessels were also distinguished by the diamond or square grid pattern impressed on its exterior, which was likely accomplished by pressing a wooden spoon against its surface [5].

                     Since the Fredrick site was positioned near the Eno River, it is likely the Occaneechi relied on the water to attract subsistence such as deer and allow them to cultivate crops such as corn. Although historians revealed that the Occaneechi tribe participated heavily in European trade, especially deer fur trade, it is determined that they likely consumed and cooked more traditional foods, such as Maize, beans, and sunflowers[6]. The Fredrick check stamped pottery likely offered the natives a way to prepare these foods and continue their traditional subsistence.

Footnotes:

[1] Ward, H. Trawick, and R. P. Stephen Davis. Time before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 242-47.

[2]  Ibid, 242-47 .

[3] Ibid, 242-47.

[4] Davis, R.P. Stephen, Jr., Patrick Livingood, and Trawick Ward, H. “Excavating Occaneechi Town: Archaeology of an Eighteenth-Century Indian Village in North Carolina,” Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2003. Accessed October 05, 2018. https://rla.unc.edu/dig/html/part3/tab1.html.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Gremillion, Kristen J. “Comparative Paleoethnobotany of Three Native Southeastern Communities of the Historic Period.” Southeastern Archaeology 14, no. 1 (Summer, 1995): 1. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/loginurl=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1297710994?accountid=14244.

Works Cited:

Davis, R.P. Stephen, Jr., Patrick Livingood, and Trawick Ward, H.       “Excavating Occaneechi Town: Archaeology of an Eighteenth-Century Indian Village in North Carolina.” Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2003. Accessed October 05, 2018. https://rla.unc.edu/dig/html/part3/tab1.html

Gremillion, Kristen J. “Comparative Paleoethnobotany of Three Native Southeastern Communities of the Historic Period.” Southeastern Archaeology 14, no. 1 (Summer, 1995): 1. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1297710994?accountid=14244.

Ward, H. Trawick, and R. P. Stephen Davis. Time before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Written by: Devyn Scott