User:Kahwinhut/Caddo Pottery

Caddo Pottery Caddo Pottery is the ceramic art or clay assemblages created from members of the Native American Caddo Tribe. The Caddo Tribe, whose name derived from the Caddo word "Kadudachu" or "Kadohadacho" also had many bands that made up the largely spread out Caddo tribe. The bands include the Hasinai with the Yatasi and NAtchitoches, and then there is the Caddo Proper bands which include the Nacagdoches, Anadarko, and Nebadache.

Caddo ceramic vessels were not just created for art. There were more importantly made to serve the roles of everyday life and ceremonies. Today they are mostly viewed as objects of art, which is unfortunate to say the least. The Caddo were not in the least bit "savage" as is evident in the sophistication of their culture and construction techniques. The vast majority of Caddo pottery seen today was crudely and thoughtlessly taken from graves and village sites without the recording of provenonce or without the supervision of a professional archaeologist, so it destroys the ability to collect and gleam information about how the prehistoric Caddo used the pottery. The only justification for taking pottery out of the ground and graves is to learn from them, the context. If that is done without observations, recordings, measurements, maps, and pictures, then it is like erasing part of the past. It is like erasing part of the tribe's culture. Some pots, and actually a quite a lot of them, however were not used as utilitarian pots. Many hours of time and energy were put into building and decorating them. They were made for a very special purpose, which usually meant for ceremoney and for interrment into graves. Many people have come to realize that if you have found a shiney burnished, engraved Caddo pot, then you have found a Caddo grave item, and it should not have been disturbed. Caddo utilitarian pottery was n ot burnished and decorated.

Need reference to Caddo History.

Design
Most Caddo pottery can be divided into 4 categories that are Bowls, jars, bottles, and effigies. Bowls are pots with a wide body and no neck. Jars are wide with wide mouths but are higher and might have some neck. Bottles have obvious necks and shoulders and become narrower than the body. Effigy pots are those that resemble animals or creatures.



Construction
Arkansas Caddo pottery was made by hand and not with a potter's wheel. No one has an exact testimony to the methods of the Caddo specifically in their pottery making, but similar tribes in very close proximity were described around 1700 as using great skill. Creating pots from their hands and fingers wihout a wheel. They were described as processing clay with shell ground to a very fine powder. They mix the clay with the powder shell and knead it with their hands and feet into a dough. Then they would spiral long coils around to shape the bowl or jar, and into the appropriapte thickness, smoothing it all the way with water, which was near, to take out the rippled surface. using this method the Caddo would make many varied types of pottery like dishes, plates, pans, pots, nad pitchers. They were described as having pottery that could hold 40 to 50 pints. The pots were then dried slowly in the shade and then they would build a large fire. After the fire burnt down to coals they would clear a place in the middle and arrange the pieces and then cover them with coals and bake them the appropriate amount of time until they are fired threough. They could then be used in cooking over fires. THe strength of the pieces in the voilent firing process was attributed to the claybody content.

Region
This is abotu the different regions of Caddo Pottery

Spiro
This is about Spiro pottery and its connections to Caddo Pottery

Prehistoric
Before the Entrada or introduction to European contact the Caddo Indians around the Southwest Arkansas,Louisianna, Texas, Oklahoma area had large villages stationed around many of the major rivers. In these large ceremonial centers, they had mastered the techniques and methodologies of clay and potterymaking. The Caddo were removed from their homeland in 1835 and were the lasst tribe to live in Arkansas. There are very many Utilitarian pots made for cooking and eating that were incised or engraved for decoration. Most of these utilitarian pots were jars, bowls and bottles. These used and worn pots broke from use and are most always found littering village sites above ground and not in graves. Some pieces were found broken but still full of their original contents inside homes that burnt down rapidly. The peak of pottery making mastery in the Southeast was established in the Mississippian Period by several cultures but most markedly the Caddo.

Historic
This is about Historic influences and changes in caddo pottery in Historic times

Modern Caddo Pottery
This is about Modern day Contemporary Caddo pottery and artists