Walls Engraved Pottery
One of the most beautiful pottery designs produced during the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is called Walls Engraved. Named originally for the Walls Site near the small town of Walls in DeSoto County, Mississippi, the Walls Phase ceremonial center is now believed to have been in Shelby County, Tennessee (slightly south of modern Memphis) at the Chucalissa Indian village which was a large mound and plaza grouping near the Mississippi River. The pottery decoration is based primarily on spiral engraving and punctated patterns on the vessel body. This ornamentation, which was done by cutting the previously fired ceramics with sharp tools, was usually executed on finely burnished exterior surfaces called Bell Plain Greyware. The decoration, though, encompasses much more than simple spirals. Design elements include crosshatched lines and triangles, stylized birds and humans, winged piasas, human hands and bones, serpents, crosses, ovals, severed human trophy heads and swastikas. These vessels normally have thin walls and a diagnostic trait is the beveling of the inner rim lip of the bottles and jars.
Archaeological analysis is indeterminate as to the source of this engraving form but a good guess would be that it came from the earlier ceramic art of the Caddo Culture people (circa AD 1200-1500) who lived in Southwestern Arkansas and Northeastern Texas. The type of decoration on Walls Engraved pottery is very similar to several Caddo motifs but the Walls vessels are normally short and bulbous rather than being tall and slender as is seen in the Caddo ceramics. This would mean a west to east dissemination of the style which is somewhat unusual. Even odder is the fact that there are many likenesses between the Walls designs and the more eastern ceramics such as Moundville Engraved from Alabama and some of the Georgia and Florida motifs. All this supports the theory that the designs came from the Caddo people and the motifs were slowly moved more eastward.
Walls Engraved pottery has been found throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley from Southeastern Missouri into Northeastern Arkansas and Western Tennessee and Mississippi and is normally found near large river systems. It is encountered in association with other pottery designs such as Kent and Rhodes Incised and Fortune Noded as well as with various effigy vessels and most of the sites, where these vessel motifs have been found, are Proto-Historic into the Historic Period or circa AD 1500 to 1700. It is now believed that the native Tunicans, who produced this ceramic style, occupied the region when the DeSoto armada came through around AD 1540 and when the French explored the area a hundred plus years later. The vessels have been discovered in association with European trade items such as glass beads, kaolin elbow pipes, iron tools and brass ornaments. The people who made this manner of art were apparently extensive travelers and traders due to the large geographic area where this pottery has been found. That is good because it allows more of us today to see and enjoy the intricate beauty of the Walls Engraved Pottery.
REFERENCES:
Brown, James A.
“On Style Divisions of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex:
A Revisionist Perspective”,
THE SOUTHEASTERN CEREMONIAL COMPLEX: ARTIFACTS AND ANALYSIS
1989
Griffin, James B.
“Prehistoric Cultures of the Central Mississippi Valley”,
ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES
1952
Hathcock, Roy
ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY
1976
Maus, James E.
“Walls Engraved Pottery”, PREHISTORIC AMERICAN, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4
1999
Rands, Robert L.
“Southern Cult Motifs on Walls-Pecan Point Pottery”,
SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
1956
Smith, Gerald P., David H. Dye & Sheryl Ann Cox
TOWNS AND TEMPLES ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI
1990
Westbrook, Kent C.
LEGACY IN CLAY
1982