Andrew J. Myers and Malinda Moses Myers

This paper was originally presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation held in Watertown, New York, November 8-11, 2001

ABSTRACT

Sand tempered ceramics found throughout the upper Roanoke drainage basin in Virginia and North Carolina are attributed to Siouan speaking tribes such as the Sara, Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo. These groups and their likely ancestors occupied the Dan and Staunton river basins during the late prehistoric and proto-historic periods between C. A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1700. This paper examines a sample of ceramic remains found at two sites where Dan River and related ceramics have been recovered. The earliest site, Stewart (44PK62/2), located along the Smith River near the village of Woolwine in Patrick County, Virginia, dates from around A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1505. The second site, Graham-White (44RN21), located along the upper Roanoke River near the city of Salem, Virginia, was occupied during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Ceramic descriptions and an overview of the Dan River culture will be presented.

Note: Numbers 1 and 2 are Graham-White and Stewart sites

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Sand tempered Dan River and related ceramics are attributed to various Siouan speaking tribes that inhabited the Ridge and Valley, Blue Ridge and Piedmont Provinces of southwestern and south-central Virginia and North Carolina (See: Figure 1). According to Coe (1995) and Egloff (1992) Dan River and related wares were manufactured by such tribes as the Sara, Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo; Siouan speaking groups that lived along the Dan and Staunton Rivers in the upper Roanoke River drainage basin during the Late Prehistoric and Proto-historic periods. According to (Gardner 1980; Davis 1987; and Ward and Davis 1993) radiocarbon dates associated with Dan River ceramics range from as early as A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1700.

This paper details the results of a study of ceramics housed at the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR). The primary objective of the study was to analyze ceramics from two sites, Graham-White (44RN21) and Stewart (44PK62/2), in order to examine the differences found in the samples and to compare the results based on temporal and spatial considerations.

A small sample of 390 ceramics was analyzed. This number included 124 rims and 135 body sherds from Graham-White and 15 rims and 116 body sherds from Stewart. Both of the sites have been radio-carbon dated and the Graham-White site was the focus of Klein and Klatka’s (1994) study entitled An Absolute Seriation Approach to Site Occupational History thus changes to ceramic assemblages found within dated features could be examined as they varied over time and compared to one another.

The earliest of the two sites examined was the Stewart site located along the Smith River in the Blue Ridge Province near the village of Woolwine in Patrick County, Virginia. Stewart has been dated by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to have been occupied between A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1505. Based on the location of the site within general proximity of Upper and Lower Saratown in the heartland of the Dan River Culture, the site could possibly be associated with and ancestral to the Sara Indians (See: Figure 2).

The second site, Graham-White (44RN21), is situated in northern Dan River territory located along the Roanoke (Staunton) River near the City of Salem, Virginia, just west of the Blue Ridge escarpment, in the Ridge and Valley Province. Dates obtained by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and by Mike Klein and Tom Klatka suggest that the site was occupied on more than one occasion with the earliest components dating between A.D. 1300 to 1500 and later components dating to the seventeenth century. Based on the location of Graham-White the site could possibly have been occupied by the Tutelo Indians, northern neighbors of the Sara (See: Figure 2).

THE CERAMIC DESCRIPTION

Vessel Forms. Vessel types viewed in the sample include jars, bowls, and small so called pinch pots. The typical vessel exhibited straight sided rims in the earlier samples and everted rims with greater neck constriction in the latter specimens. Just below the neck, the shoulder region, was often the widest location on the vessel. The typical base is elongated and conical in form while others are round. Occasional vessels exhibit lugs and strap handles similar to Ft. Ancient examples. Collared vessels were not witnessed in either site sample and are not typical vessel forms of Siouan manufacture (See: Figure 3).

Various shapes of Dan River and related vessels

Method of Manufacture

The vast majority of the ceramics examined in both site samples regardless of age were manufactured primarily by the coiling method. Bases were often formed separately by modeling a lump of clay to size. The remainder of the vessel was constructed by adding coils to reach the desired height. A small number of modeled vessels were present in the Graham-White sample. This type of construction was also witnessed by Whyte and Thompson (1989) from samples recovered at the Bessemer site located along the James River.

Paste

Three distinctive ceramic pastes could be identified all tempered with variation of sand and crushed quartz. Generally speaking as time progressed, the size of the sand and quartz inclusions added to the ceramic paste became finer. The earliest ceramics are attributed to the Grayson series and exhibited paste comprised of large crushed quartz fragments and crushed sand. The crushed quartz inclusions reached sizes greater than 10mm in size and averaged c. 4.36 mm. The sand matrix could be perhaps best described as a medium to finely crushed coarse sand.

The second paste identified was typical of Dan River Series wares which temporally follows the Grayson Series in time. This paste was comprised of a mixture of sand with finer crushed quartz inclusions than that of the earlier Grayson predecessors. The sand particles averaged around 1mm in size with the crushed quartz inclusions ranging from 2 to 8mm and averaging around 3mm size.

The later ceramic paste variety was of the Wythe Series. These ceramics exhibited a compact paste of finely crushed sand. Typically the quartz inclusions averaged 1mm or less in size.

Body Wall Thickness

On the average the older ceramics in the sample were thicker than those of latter periods. The ceramics from the Stewart sample on average were 2.3 mm thicker than the Graham-White ceramics. Stewart ceramics averaged 7.76mm while the Graham-White ceramics averaged 5.45 mm. Lip measurements averaged 5.85mm in the Stewart sample and 4.72mm in the Graham-White sample. Similarly, components dating to 14th and 15th centuries from the Graham-White sample were found to be thicker than those dating to the 17th century respectively. 14th and 15th century ceramics averaged 5.71mm in thickness while the 17th century ceramics averaged 5.25mm.

Surface Finish

Vessels were embellished on the exterior surface by a number of methods (See: Figures 4 and 5). Popular forms of surface treatment included looped and knotted net impressing, cord-marking, corn cob impressing, check stamping, smoothing (i.e plain) and a small percentage of possible fabric impressed sherds were noted.

Percentages of exterior surface treatment Stewart Site

Looped nets were the most common form of surface finish found in both site samples. Stewart exhibited 80% net impressed sherds, including both loop and knotted net varieties while the Graham-White site exhibited 72% net impressed sherds. The earlier Stewart sample exhibited more ceramics impressed with knotted nets than the Graham-White sample. Corn cob impressed, check stamped and fabric impressed ceramics were witnessed as minority components in the Graham-White sample. Corn cob impressed sherds were found only in those ceramic components dating to the 14th and 15th centuries while Check stamped varieties were found only in those samples attributed to the 17th century. Cord-marked sherds were more common in the Graham-White sample and accounted for some 40% of the collection which is somewhat biased as the research was originally conducted to specifically examine for percentages of cordage twist. Only 5% of the Stewart sample exhibited cord-marking as a form of surface treatment.

Percentages of exterior surface treatment Graham-White

Cordage Twist Data

Ceramic surfaces were examined to determine percentages of positive cord twist impression using both clay and latex casts to detect weft slant patterns. Of the 390 sherds examined in this study 191 sherds produced either an S or Z twist positive impression which equates to 49% of the sample. This high success rate is due to the selection for study of only those sherds that appeared as if they would produce a cast and due to selection primarily of cord-marked sherds . If the entire collection would have been analyzed in this portion of the study the success rate would have been greatly reduced due to the number of puddled surfaces found on net impressed sherds. In many instances only the small threads interwoven into the net to hold the net together could produce a final twist count. The nets themselves while not always producing a positive cordage twist impression did however occasionally evidence the spin direction of the fibers used in the making of the nets.

Percentages of final cord twist patterns

Percentages of final twist patterns are as follows (see: Figure 6). The earlier Stewart site produced 63% final Z twist to 37% final S twist. The Graham-White sample exhibited 88% final Z twist patterns to only 12% final S twist (see figure 6). The percentages of final Z twist cordage increased over time with the highest percentages of final Z twist cordage being manufactured in the 17th century.

Apparently high percentages of final Z twist impressions are not un-common. Gallivan (1997) has noted that at the Dan River Phase Leatherwood Creek Site in Henry County 75% of the ceramics exhibited final Z twist cordage. Ceramic samples examined by William C. Johnson (Johnson 1999b: Table 4) and Robert Maslowski (Maslowski 1996: 92, Table 5.2) from Bluestone Phase sites located in the lower New River drainage were commonly found to exhibit frequencies of final Z twist pottery greater than 74% (see: Johnson 2001: Table 6). At the Snidow Site in Mercer County, West Virginia, Johnson (2001) recently examined a sample that produced 90% final Z twist cordage impressions.

Interior Combing

Ceramics exhibited either smooth interiors or had been combed (See: Figure 7). The combed incisions ranged from horizontal lines to short series of alternating lines intersected by other lines. The percentages of combed interior surfaces vs. those that remained were smooth was perhaps the greatest difference found while comparing Stewart and Graham-White. At Stewart 69% of the sample exhibited interior combing compared to only 4% of the Graham-White sample. Interior combing is not common in the northern varieties of Dan River ceramics. According to Gardner (1980:42) geographical distance from the Dan River seems to correlate with a decrease in the incidence of interior striations as one moves northward. Buzzard Rock and the Bessemer site located in close proximity to Graham-White exhibited virtually no interior scraped specimens.

Percentages of Interior combing

Rim, Lip and Neck

Lips were typically smoothed prior to the addition of decoration and were rounded, square or beveled in appearance. Rim profiles appear straight to slightly everted. A trend towards greater constriction of necks and eversion of vessel rims seems to occur over time. Earlier vessels such as the Grayson vessel in the Stewart sample exhibit straight rims while those in the Graham-White sample, especially the latter components, exhibited constricted necks and greater eversion of the rim than the earlier samples.

Neck Decoration: The majority of the decoration consisted of various forms of dentate incising and notching which was typically applied to the lip and neck of the vessel. The neck often exhibited singular thumbnail gashes or thumb and forefinger pinching that encircled the vessel. The plain variety of Dan River was incised with various types of geometric shapes and linear incising. One reed impressed body sherd was witness in the Graham-White sample. The use of occasional round punctate was also noted on several vessels. (See: SLIDE 11-Lip Treatment). Lips were decorated in a number of ways. The majority of the ceramics exhibited fingernail incising oriented perpendicular and obliquely to the vessel opening. Notching was also viewed on exterior and interior lip edges (See: Figures 8, 9, 10 and 11).

Rim and neck decoration Stewart

Rim and neck decoration Graham-White

DISCUSSION

The people belonging to the Dan River culture appear to be part of a large cultural sphere that included a number related linguistic and tribal groups. Mooney (1895) has suggested that there were at least 39 Siouan tribes and 2 confederacies occupying portions of Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. Swanton (1952) proposed that Siouan speaking groups occupied portions of the New River valley in Present day West Virginia and perhaps even further westward into Ohio. Other researchers such as George (1980) has postulated that the Monongahela of southwestern Pennsylvania could possibly be Siouan speaking as well.

In the Roanoke River valley these groups appear to have occupied the region for quite some time. MacCord (1995) has suggested that based on the ceramic evidence found at a number of deeply stratified sites located within the Roanoke River basin that the Dan River people and there ancestors lived in the region for perhaps as long as 2000 years.

The earliest ceramics examined in the study sample were those of the Grayson series which were found only in the earlier Stewart sample. In Patrick County dates associated with Grayson ceramics range from c. A.D. 1000 to c. A.D. 1300. According to Egloff et al (1987), Grayson ceramics found at the Clark site, located in close proximity to Stewart, have been dated to c. A.D. 1015 and are associated with the earliest occurrence of corn in the Virginia-North Carolina Piedmont. The earliest dates obtained by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for the Stewart site place the Grayson ceramics found there to the last half of the 13th century after A.D. 1250. The Grayson series was originally defined by Holland (1970) in his work entitled, An Archaeological Survey of Southwest Virginia. The series is descriptively, geographically, and temporally identifiable with Coe’s (1952) Uwharrie pottery which has been identified as proto-Siouan. Holland (1970) noted similarities between the Grayson Series and the Albemarle Series and considered the four series, Albemarle, Grayson, Uwharrie and Yadkin to be extensions of a single ceramic tradition with local, temporal and type variations (Holland 1970:55).

The Dan River Series temporally followed the Grayson/Uwharrie Series. The Dan River phase proposed by Ward and Davis (1993) occurred between A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1450, overlapping to some degree with the earlier Grayson/Uwharrie temporal position. Dan River ceramics were formally defined by Coe and Lewis (1952) in the Dan River Series Statement. They viewed Dan River series ceramics as mid-point in transition from the earlier Uwharrie series to the later Caraway Series. Holland (1970) was the first to suggest that the pottery of Southwest Virginia conformed to Coe and Lewis’s original ceramic description. Recently Coe (1995:159) proposed that Dan River ceramics are associated with the Sara (Saura) and their northern neighbor the Tutelo.

The later varieties of Dan River ceramics include those types belonging to the Stokes and Wythe series. Stokes and Wythe are essentially the same ware when sorted by paste. The major difference is again based on the geographic location where each is found. The Wythe series was originally defined by Holland (1970) and is found primarily west of the Blue Ridge at sites such as Graham-White. Stokes on the other hand according to Gardner is found east of the Blue Ridge in the central Piedmont along the Virginia Carolina border. Gardner (1980:68) views Wythe ware as a western variant of Dan River, comparable to the Clarkesville series of (Evans 1955). According to Gardner (1980:63) Stokes is later than Dan River ware and earlier than, and likely partially coeval with, Hillsboro Ware dating to ca. A.D. 1550-A.D. 1725. The Wythe series ceramics found at Graham-White are found in association with Hillsboro ware and specifically Fredericks check stamped varieties indicating possibly that Wythe and Stokes share a similar temporal position. Wythe and Stokes likely represent regional variations comparable to the Caraway ceramics of Coe and Lewis’ (1952) Uwharrie, Dan River, Caraway continuum in which the finest crushed sand temper paste of the Caraway, Wythe and Stokes series also represents regional variations of similar traditions.

A small minority of a number of other ceramic varieties were also noted at Graham-White including, Fredericks Check Stamped, New River and Radford ceramics. According to Coe (1995), Fredericks Check Stamped, was likely manufactured by the Occaneechi. Egloff (1992) has noted that the shell tempered New River and limestone tempered Radford ceramics were also likely manufactured by Siouan speaking groups.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to Tom Klatka and John Kern of the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for their help with this study. Tom Klatka provided many useful suggestions during the course of the study and graciously loaned the Stewart site ceramics.

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