Ranch Incised Pottery
In the closing centuries of the Mississippian Period, AD 1400-1600, the natives who lived near the river that bears their cultural name, developed several new motifs that were used on their ceramics. Today, one of those designs is called Ranch Incised.
Most of the pottery artistic styles made and used by the prehistoric to proto-historic Indians have been given names that relate to ancient village/mound sites such as Campbell Incised, Walls Engraved, Parkin Punctate and Fortune Noded. There is no clear cut answer for the name Ranch Incised but the thoughts, today, are that it was named for the Barton Ranch site in Arkansas. The incising of this ceramic form is an imbricated pattern which simply means fish scales. Indeed the theme does appear to be parallel curvilinear lines incised very closely together that resembles the scales on fish and the form includes mostly jars and bottles with fewer bowls being made. The fish scale incising, which was done with a sharp instrument into the unfired ceramics, covers the body of much of this shell tempered pottery style that is called Neeley’s Ferry greyware or as some collectors call it, “Mississippi ware”. This is a reasonably rough textured pottery consisting of clay with the tempering material being large particles of crushed mussel shell. The outside was normally smoothed but not polished and the shell pieces can easily be seen on the vessel surface. It was normally fired to present a medium to dark grey color but if the piece was over-fired, the color changed to tan or buff on the surface with a grey core. The Ranch style, though, does encompass some vessels made of well polished ceramics called Bell Plain ceramics that was normally used mostly for effigy type ceramics.
Much of the Ranch Incised vessels are in the jar form meaning that the vessel is taller than in width. Much
of it also has the so called arcaded handles encircling the jar just below the rim. This term simply means arches and when one of these jars is seen, these arches are clearly evident. These Ranch Incised jars are usually in the globular form with very short necks and the water bottles, which are flattened globular in form, normally have reasonably short necks that are wide in circumference. It is believed to be a distinctly geographical style based primarily on population centers in the middle Mississippi Valley region of the modern states of northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri. The ceramists who made vessels in this style obviously made other pottery incised and engraved motifs since the Ranch Incised patterns is frequently seen in conjunction with other patterns in hybrid styles such as seen on vessels whose neck region are engraved with diagonal lines as in Barton Incised or with punctuations as in Parkin Punctate.
One of the main questions for modern American Indian pottery enthusiasts is whether the natives a few hundred years ago, developed this incised motif from the aquatic animals that probably furnished a large part of their diet. There is no definite answer to this query but the current thinking is that the scales on fish’s bodies probably did inspire the pottery craftsmen. But just where and how the style originated is of less importance than its actual being since we can now enjoy the intricate beauty of Ranch Incised pottery.
REFERENCES:
Funderburk, Emma L. & Mary D. Foreman
SUN CIRCLES AND HUMAN HANDS
1957
Hathcock, Roy
ANCIENT INDIAN POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
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Holmes, William H.
“Aboriginal Pottery of the Eastern United States”,
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
1903
Morse, Dan F. & Phyllis A. Morse
ARCHAEOLOGY OF CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
1983
O’Brien, Michael J.
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1994
Perino, Gregory
“The Banks Village Site: Crittendon County, Arkansas”,
MISSOURI ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY MEMOIR, No. 4
1966
Phillips, Phillip, James Ford & James B Griffin
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Phillips, Phillip
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