Finding Evidence of Early Caddo Potters at Cahokia
Paige Ford, PhD, Arkansas Archaeological Survey
This presentation explores early Caddo-Cahokia connections through the analyses of Early Caddo (AD 900-1150) fineware pottery found in both Caddo and Cahokia contexts. Dr. Ford (ARAS-PBMRS) and colleague Dr. Shawn Lambert (Mississippi State University) examined Caddo-like fineware ceramics found at Cahokia Mounds to investigate whether these vessels were 1) produced by Caddo potters who lived and worked at Cahokia, 2) produced by local Cahokia potters who copied Caddo motifs, or 3) were imported to Illinois from the southern Caddo area located in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The results of their analyses suggest these pots were indeed made by Caddo craft specialists living at Cahokia, as they discovered continuity in style and design between pots manufactured in the southern Caddo area and those found at Cahokia. Dr. Ford will describe their investigations and results, describing the significance of this study in understanding not only the connections between Caddo people and Cahokia, but their role in building this large multi-ethnic Mississippian community.
Dr. Paige Ford is a Station Archeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey stationed at Plum Bayou Mounds Archeological State Park. She is a native of North Carolina and completed her Bachelor’s in Archaeology at UNC Chapel Hill as well as her her Master’s and Ph.D. in Anthropology from East Carolina University and the University of Oklahoma, respectively. Her primary research involves better understanding the relationships Pre-Columbian peoples forged and maintained locally and regionally with one another. Focusing now on the understudied Late Woodland period in Arkansas, she examines the ways in which potters made and decorated their ceramics, to reconstruct those community relationships at the local and regional levels using social network analysis. In addition to these research activities, she focuses on the development of public outreach and education programs in collaboration with other local and regional entities; training university interns; and the preservation and management of Plum Bayou Mounds.
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