Fort McCoy ArtiFACT: Naples stamped sherds

In 2013, archaeologists with Colorado State University’s Center for the Environmental Management of Military Lands investigated a prehistoric site in the northern reaches of the installation.

One of the excavation units placed at the site yielded a group of prehistoric ceramic vessel fragments. These vessel fragments are referred to as “sherds” by archaeologists and are recovered with some frequency at Fort McCoy. These particular sherds were interesting because of their size and how easy it was to see how they fit back together as well as how much of a single vessel they represented. Looking at individual sherds can be instructive, but viewing them all together allows researchers to determine their age with much more confidence.

Precontact ceramics, such as prehistoric projectile points (stone spear points and arrowheads), are important temporal indicators and are called diagnostic materials by archaeologists. Artifact size, shape, and decoration change over time. The oldest diagnostic artifacts recovered at Fort McCoy bear little resemblance to the most recent; projectile points trend, more or less, from larger points which were attached to the ends of spears or spear darts to smaller points which were attached to arrow shafts. Ceramics also see changes in vessel form, but changes in the treatment of vessel exteriors is much more easy to observe, especially in the smaller sherds which are commonly recovered.

It is generally accepted that ceramics enter the archaeological record during a time referred to as the Woodland cultural period, which began approximately 2,550 years ago in this area. The Woodland period is divided into three parts: early, middle, and late, and each of these is further subdivided (i.e., Early Middle Woodland, Middle Late Woodland, etc.). Many of the chronological distinctions imparted by these temporal divisions and subdivisions are based upon ceramic decoration styles which have been found in association with archaeological features such as stained soils darkened by campfires or cooking pits during the prehistoric period. Because radiocarbon dates have been fairly consistently associated with ceramic styles, the presence of certain ceramic styles at archaeological sites serve as temporal markers when direct or absolute dating methods cannot be used.

The group of sherds collected by researchers in 2013 were attributed to the Naples stamped type of Havana ware. This association narrows the age range from Woodland Period (from between approximately 2,550 years ago and 50-100 years ago) to the Trempealeau Phase of the Middle Woodland (between 1,800-1,900 years ago, approximately).

Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.

Any person who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.