Cherokee Pottery by M. Anna Fariello

Author:M. Anna Fariello
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Wood paddles carved with patterned grooves were used to decorate Cherokee pottery. Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1903.

Holmes noted that the surface of this small prehistoric vessel was covered with “markings made by paddling with a cord-wrapped tool.” The bowl was excavated from a mound in North Carolina. Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1903.

PADDLE STAMPING AND INCISING

Indeed, paddle stamping was a distinguishing characteristic of Cherokee pottery. A potter slapped the pot’s exterior repeatedly with a wood paddle carved with a pattern of grooves on its face. While this gentle paddling was decorative, it also enhanced the function of the pot. Such paddling helped to compress the clay, thus strengthening the sidewalls, while simultaneously leaving a soft pattern of overall diamonds or squares on its outer surface. This roughened surface made it easier to keep a firm hold on the outside of a full pot.

A second method of exterior decoration was incising. To create a surface that could accept an incised design, a potter first burnished the pot’s exterior with a polishing stone. Once the surface was even, the potter scratched a design onto the smooth surface, using a sharp marking stick. Both methods of paddling and incising were found on prehistoric pottery, were recorded by Mooney at the turn of the century and are used by Cherokee potters today.

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