You've likely seen pottery sherds or other ceramics at a museum. Today we're going to focus on what Indigenous pottery makers in the Upper Midwest added to the clay when making a vessel. Let's talk temper! Temper is a material mixed with clay to change its characteristics, usually to prevent vessels from cracking as they dry and are fired. Archaeologists closely examine pottery sherds, sometimes with a magnifying glass, loupe, or microscope, to identify the temper used. In the La Crosse area, we find pottery sherds tempered with grit, or crushed rock, made by Woodland tradition peoples. They started making the first pottery in the region around 2,500 years ago. Later, beginning about AD 1300 in La Crosse, precontact peoples of a tradition archaeologists call “Oneota” tempered their pottery with crushed, burned shells of freshwater mussels. Sometimes the shell has leeched out of the vessel by the time we see it, but the holes from the shell remain so we know it was shell-tempered. Less commonly used tempers in the region include sand and limestone. Related MVAC webpages: -Ceramic Analyis: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/educators/archaeology-terms/?letter=c&term;=129922 -Lab Analysis - Ceramic Analysis: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/process-of-archaeology/lab-analysis/ceramic-analysis/ -Oneota Ceramics: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/artifacts/?letter=o&term;=125944 -Oneota Pottery: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/oneota-pottery/ -Paste: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/educators/archaeology-terms/?letter=p&term;=129073 -Pot Sherd: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/educators/archaeology-terms/?letter=p&term;=129085 -Pottery: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/educators/archaeology-terms/?letter=p&term;=129086 -Technologies - Ceramics: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/native-knowledge/technologies/#Ceramics -Temper: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/educators/archaeology-terms/?letter=t&term;=128951 -Woodland Ceramics: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/artifacts/?letter=w&term;=126616 Related MVAC videos: -How to Recognize Pottery – MVAC’s Dr. Connie Arzigian discusses how to recognize pottery from other artifacts and natural materials, including looking for temper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoyiZWToUE&t;=617s -Pottery Decoration – Archaeologists study designs or decoration on pottery in addition to temper. Learn more about how pottery decoration, as well as temper, in the La Crosse changed over time and what this tells us in this video featuring Dr. Connie Arzigian.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhzz8L9RvTU Artifact Identification Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse works mainly in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa and can provide information related to that region. If you would like information on artifacts, email a description of the item and where it was found, and attach a picture of the artifact with a scale to show its size. For more information visit MVAC’s website at: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/contact/. For information on other regions, we suggest contacting the appropriate state archaeologist from the following list: https://sites.google.com/view/state-archaeologists.

• published: 30 Jan 2024
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