Emily L. Beahm, Arkansas Archeological Survey, Winthrop Rockefeller Institute Station
Artifact of the Month – March 2021
This month’s artifact is a ceramic sherd. It is a piece from the base of a round, flat-bottomed ceramic vessel. The vessel was made out of clay with crushed mussel shell added as temper to prevent cracking while firing and to increase the vessel’s strength after firing. The sherd measures 52 mm (2 inches) wide, 63 mm (2.5 inches) long, and 6.7 mm (0.26 inches) thick and weighs 22 grams (0.78 ounces). What makes this sherd especially interesting is that it has an impression on the outside surface of a mat or basket it was sitting on while the vessel was being formed and the clay was still wet and malleable.

This sherd was found at the Heber Springs site (3CE68). At one time the Heber Springs site included a low, oval mound. In 1979, Arkansas Archeological Survey archeologist Robert Ray conducted some salvage work there after he was contacted by the site’s owner. The landowner informed Ray that there was a good possibility the mound would be destroyed, as he had plans to sell the soybean field where the site and mound were located for development. In addition to mapping the site, Ray and other Survey archeologists excavated a 30-meter-long trench and four small test units into the mound to study the techniques and timing of mound construction. This basket-impressed base sherd was excavated from a unit near the southern end of the mound at a depth of 28 to 38 cm below ground surface (or 130–140 cm below datum) in unit N12 E48 E1/2. A small Scallorn arrow point was also excavated from this level.
Basketry impressions on flat-bottomed vessels have been recorded elsewhere, mainly from mid-to-late Woodland period sites (Dellinger and Dickenson 1942; Horton 2010:405; Sabo et al. 1990:75). In Arkansas they have been found at the Wild Violet site (3LO226), 3LO183, the Poole site (3GA3), and the Crooked Creek site (3FR26), although these examples are on clay-tempered, rather than shell-tempered, sherds (Hoffman et al. 1977:53; Wood 1981:33). Shell-tempered flat-bottomed ceramics with basketry impressions on the base were reported from the Ira Spradley site (3NW101) and 3CE12 to mention just a few (McGimsey 1959:19; Sabo and Hilliard 2008). One such vessel from Ira Spradley yielded an AMS date of cal. A.D. 652–882 at 2 sigma [CALIB 7.0.4 on 1280 ± 60 B.P. (Beta-123306; d13C= -21.3%)] (Sabo and Hilliard 2008). AMS dates are currently being processed, but similar dates are anticipated for use of the Heber Springs site.
