Vessel Shape x x x
Mostly Cordmarked x x x
Mostly Sherd Tempered x x
Mostly Grit Tempered x
Squared Lip x
Rounded, “sloppy” lip x x
Interior Lip Cord Wrapped Stick stamp x x x
Interior Lip plain stamp x x
Exterior Lip plain stamp x
Vertical Lip plain stamp x
Undecorated Lip x x x
As such, your material seems about as similar to one as the other, every
attribute being shared with either Korondo or Early Bluff, or with both.
Also your radiocarbon dates, or at least the two earliest ones, conform
quite well. Dr. Robert Hall, now of the University of Chicago, has two
dates for a Korondo site in the southern part of the American Bottoms
(Stolle Quarry) AD-700 and 900, and by a process of elimination, Early
Bluff in the northern portion of the Bottoms must date pre-850. (Korondo
is found in the southern part of the Bottoms and south; Early Bluff is
in the northern portion and north.) Your one dentate stamped sherd (Fig.
1) is probably Naples Dentate Stamped, and as such is surely an
accidental inclusion—I doubt if this Middle Woodland type was made later
than A.D. 400 at the latest. Also the largest projectile point from pit
_D_ looks like a sloppy Snyders Point, again a Middle Woodland type and
probably an accident (or a specimen collected by the Late Woodland
peoples). The smallest point from the pit is probably a Late Woodland
Koster Point (cf. Perino, 1963, Central States Arch. Jour., Vol. 10, No.
3, pp. 95-100).
An attribute you might include in your pottery description is the
direction of twist of cords used in making the cordmarkings; “S” twist
(right hand) and “Z” twist (left hand)—but remember, the impressions on
the pottery are negative, so the _cord was the opposite of the
impressions that you see_. I found the percentage of this attribute
quite significant in separating Early Bluff from Late Bluff.”