Key Points

• Archaeologists rely on pottery artifacts to understand the everyday lives of the people who made them. Analyzing the artifact’s composition, technique and decoration can help scientists understand trade relationships, cultural or spiritual identity and how artistic styles changed through time. 
• Scientists wanted to know whether Pensacola potters, who lived in Mobile Bay and adjacent coastal regions to the east and west around A.D. 1150-1700, used marine shell temper in their pottery due to its convenience or pottery-making properties. 
• Archaeologists partnered with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, who are among the living descendants of Pensacola communities. The collaboration generated reciprocal benefits: Scientists gained valuable insights into Pensacola pottery-making, while Choctaw potters reconnected with their ancestral homelands by incorporating coastal resources in their pottery for the first time since their ancestors were removed nearly 200 years ago.

The process is deceptively simple: find clay, shape it, fire it. But for archaeologists, pottery holds a multitude of stories. Across time it has bound hands and history together, helping scientists understand how communities once gathered, traded and shared meals. And sometimes, pottery becomes more than an artifact by reconnecting people with culture and evolving traditions. 

“Archeology has contemporary value,” said Ashley Rutkoski, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at the University of Florida. “It is a way to reawaken history and reconnect with it.”

Researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of South Alabama have been studying pottery to learn more about the Pensacola culture, which arose around A.D. 1100 and thrived in Mobile Bay and adjacent coastal regions to the east and west for some 600 years. During that time, many potters in what is now the United States prepared their clay by mixing it with temper, a rigid material like sand or crushed pottery that improves its workability and prevents it from cracking. Freshwater shell was a common choice, but Pensacola potters, living near both rivers and the ocean, also used marine shells. Archaeologists wondered whether this choice was a matter of mere convenience, or if the marine shell offered structural advantages that freshwater shells did not. While they couldn’t directly ask the Pensacola people who lived centuries ago, they could turn to their descendants: members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. This sparked a reciprocal partnership that disrupts the typical one-way flow of information in research, instead ensuring that both archaeologists and tribal members actively contributed to and benefited from the collaboration. 

At the heart of this partnership was the concept of “braiding knowledge,” developed by the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe anthropologist Sonya Atalay. The approach combines Indigenous and Western knowledge systems — not by subsuming one under the other, but by allowing each to inform the other for a more holistic view. 

 “There is knowledge that archeologists don’t have,” said Erin Nelson, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Alabama. “Choctaw potters have a lot of insight to offer us, and we hopefully have something that we can give back. That really enhances the science; it’s a stronger, more nuanced project when you have more perspectives.” 

Scientific analysis of artifacts can help answer questions about the everyday lives of the potters who made them. Analyzing an artifact’s composition, technique and decoration can help scientists answer whether the artifact was made nearby or arrived by trade; how the person who made the pottery fit into a larger cultural or spiritual community; and how artistic styles changed through time, and what that says about the relationship between teacher and apprentice.

But other questions are only meaningfully understood through making and using pottery. In this case, the answers were resting in the hands of modern Choctaw potters in Oklahoma. To better understand past communities, these artists recreated traditional Pensacola pottery, pairing their familiar techniques with the unfamiliar coastal materials their ancestors once used. 

“Many of the potters have been working in traditional pottery for 15 years, and some with the very same styles that the research group was interested in archeologically,” said Ian Thompson, a traditional potter and tribal historic preservation officer for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “It’s really valuable to see these things, not just as stationary entities from the archeological record but by actually making and using them.”

Collecting clay / Lukfi kuhli 

Choctaw potters collect clays with the best qualities for pottery. Each has unique properties that affect how it’s shaped, treated and fired. The right clay must be both workable and able to withstand firing to create functional, lasting pottery.  

To begin, Choctaw potters collected clays from their ancestral homelands near Mobile Bay, Alabama, the center of Pensacola culture. Alongside the archaeologists, they scooped up clay from four different sites along the delta, coastal salt marshes and barrier islands. Archaeologists brought samples of the clay to the Ceramic Technology Lab at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and Choctaw artists returned with the rest of the clay and some marine shell temper. This project marked the first-known time Oklahoma Choctaw artists made pottery using coastal clays and oyster shell since their ancestors were removed from the region nearly two centuries ago.

Indigenous communities have lived in Mobile Bay for over 14,000 years — long before, during and after the arrival of Europeans. According to Choctaw history, their people were created from the land’s clay, or lukfi nia in the Choctaw language. Directly translating to “fat earth,” the term refers to the oily appearance of good pottery clay.

Mobile Bay formed a crossroads where ideas and people flowed east and west along the coast and inland via rivers. To understand the origin of Pensacola culture, you must first look hundreds of miles north, where, just over 1,000 years ago, a cultural revolution was taking root in the Mississippi River Valley. This Mississippian culture was marked by the emergence of social hierarchies and chiefdoms; the shift to agriculture, especially the cultivation of maize; and the construction of flat-topped earthen mounds. Communities also became skilled at making pottery with crushed freshwater mussel shells.

The Mississippian culture spread across the midwestern and southeastern regions of what is now the United States, and when it reached Mobile Bay, it combined with existing coastal practices. Along a roughly 250-mile stretch of the gulf, the unique Pensacola culture emerged as a mixture of both inland and coastal traditions. 

The arrival of Europeans in the 1500s marked the beginning of centuries of colonization, ultimately forcing Indigenous communities from their homelands and suppressing many of their traditional practices, including pottery making. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and during the Trail of Tears, many Choctaw people brought pottery with them — tangible connections to their ancestral homeland — as they were forced to relocate westward.

“This project actively forged a connection between present-day potters and their ancestors, and it was facilitated through archaeology,” Nelson said. “We can share what the pottery is like, what material is used and even what the clay source is. Through this physical material, they are connected with a community of potters from the past.”

The team collected clay from Blakeley Bluff, located along the Tensaw River delta in Alabama.

Natural clays come in many colors, but for traditional potters, the most important factors are the clay’s quality and workability.

Archaeologists and Choctaw potters combined forces in a collaboration rooted in the concept of “braiding knowledge.”

The team collected clay in the salt marshes near Bayou Coden, Alabama.

For the Choctaw, tracing their history back to the region is also an important step in protecting it for the future. Under the National Historic Preservation Act, federal agencies must consult with tribes before carrying out plans that may affect their ancestral sites. Partnering with archaeologists can help uncover where Choctaw peoples once lived along the gulf coast.

However, identifying these sites is often challenging in a region where different communities traded and lived together for over 10,000 years. After all, where an artifact is found is not necessarily where it was made. To account for this, scientists use a technique called neutron activation analysis to measure the unique chemical composition of clay, essentially creating a fingerprint that links clay and its artifacts. By comparing the chemical makeup of artifacts with known clay sources, archaeologists can track how pottery, and therefore people, moved across the landscape. The samples of clay collected in Mobile Bay were added to a library of data at the Ceramic Technology Lab, which has over 2,000 pottery and clay samples for these comparisons.

“Clay collecting is a huge part of what we do here in the lab,” said Rutkoski, a member of the Ceramic Technology Lab. “Knowing the distinctive chemical compositions of different areas allows us to trace where an artifact started and ended to put the puzzle together.”

Shaping / vlhkoa 

Choctaw potters mix clay with various types of temper—materials like fiber, sand, crushed pottery or shell—to prevent cracking during firing, with the type and size of temper chosen based on the function of the vessel. Pots are then shaped using traditional methods such as molding, coiling and paddling, with temper size and technique adjusted for cooking, serving or decorative use. 

Most notable in their divergence from Mississippian culture was the type of shell temper Pensacola potters added to their pottery. Positioned along rivers and the gulf, these communities had access to both freshwater and marine resources, and the archaeological record shows they used both. A key question for archaeologists was why Pensacola potters elected to use oyster and clam shells in addition to the freshwater mussel shells used by the broader Mississippian culture. Each of these shells is structurally different, which means its temper may impart different structural qualities to the resulting pottery.

“We know that the Pensacola potters were using unconventional materials,” Nelson said. “The coastal potters adopted freshwater shell temper, but they also incorporated some coastal resources, like oyster and clam. We wanted to explore this idea of whether they were using these materials because they’re locally available and convenient, or if they enhanced the performance of the pot.” 

Archaeologists can identify the type of temper a potter used by examining the breakage pattern of pottery sherds. The shapes of these fragments vary depending on whether they used clam, oyster or mussel shell as temper. Clam shell tends to break into blocky, rectangular pieces, while mussel shell forms more linear plates. Oyster shell falls somewhere between. To determine which type of shell temper Pensacola potters were using, archaeologists created test briquettes using each shell type. These pottery samples serve as visual identification guides, helping researchers match temper types in artifacts recovered from Pensacola sites.

As modern Choctaw potters experimented with these different shells, they shared insights from the process of creating, firing and cooking with the pottery. They found, for example, that clam shell was much tougher to grind down into temper than freshwater mussel shell. But the extra time required to process this shell may have been worth it because it produced especially durable greenware (the shaped, unfired stage of pottery).

It is challenging to determine the true rationale behind such choices, especially as they aren’t always driven by function or availability. Pottery also carries layers of cultural meaning. The construction techniques reflect private, intergenerational knowledge through connections between the potter and the person who taught them. Meanwhile, decoration, motifs and vessel shapes serve as public expressions of identity, signaling shared beliefs or cultural affiliations to the broader community.  

“Humans are complicated. Rarely do we do things for just one reason,” Rutkoski said. “As archaeologists thinking about how these past communities utilized and made pottery, we are trying to think about all these complex reasons together.”

This project marked the first-known time Oklahoma Choctaw artists made pottery using coastal clays and oyster shell since their ancestors were removed from the Mobile Bay region nearly two centuries ago.

Choctaw artists fire traditional pottery by heating it evenly and slowly in a bonfire.

Firing / luachi 

After drying for about two weeks, the pots are fired in a carefully managed bonfire reaching up to 1,250°F, with smoke introduced during cooling to create the dark smudging seen on many Pensacola wares. Cooking pots are sealed with oil like cast iron for durability, while serving bowls are used directly for food.

After the clay was prepared and shaped, the Choctaw Nation conducted a public demonstration of traditional firing techniques at the University of South Alabama. This is part of the tribe’s broader goals of revitalization of tradition. For 16 years, members have held community pottery classes, only pausing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Oklahoma, community firing days typically serve as an opportunity for participants to connect with other aspects of the Choctaw culture. The events usually include shared meals, which are sometimes combined with Choctaw hymn-singing, storytelling and traditional dancing.

It is a fitting activity, because for most pottery, there’s a fourth step beyond collecting, shaping and firing: using. Once fired, pottery enters the life of the community, serving as food vessels, cookware, ceremonial dishes and more.

“If you have the ability to go out into the landscape and make beautiful, functional art that helps to process food in a traditional way, then you’re talking about something a whole lot more valuable than a piece that sits on the shelf. You’re talking about revitalizing a way of living that’s unique to a community and may lead to better outcomes than the current status quo,” Thompson said. “When communities work to bring some of these things back, it’s about present and future quality of life.”

Choctaw artists held a public pottery demonstration at the University of South Alabama, part of a broader effort to revitalize the tradition.

Traditional community firing events typically include a shared meal, showcasing the strong link between pottery and aspects of everyday life.

And as modern Choctaw potters have shown, these traditions are dynamic. In the past 3,500 years, over 100 generations of Choctaw have shaped traditional pottery, and this tradition will continue to evolve in the hands of new artists.

“Every generation came up with its own innovations in terms of style,” Thompson said. “I always work in traditional Choctaw pottery styles, but one of the beliefs is that a specific design belongs to the person that created it. When I do pottery, I work in traditional styles, but I don’t directly copy specific old designs. I create my own designs within the ancestral styles. To me, that’s carrying on the ethic of traditional pottery, too.”

A full account of the work done for this study was published in the May issue of the SAA Archaeological Record, volume 25, number 3.  

Additional authors of the study are Carole Ayers and Vangie Robinson of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; David Batton and Karen Downen of the Historic Preservation Department of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; and Lindsay Bloch, Andrea Torvinen and Neill Wallis of Florida Museum of Natural History.

Sources: Erin Nelson, erinnelson@southalabama.edu;
Ian Thompson, ithompson@choctawnation.com;
Ashley Rutkoski, arutkoski@ufl.edu
Writer: Brooke Bowser, bbowser@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
Media contact: Jerald Pinson, jpinson@flmnh.ufl.edu, 352-294-0452