The photo is of a ceramic potsherd and its clay cast from a 2017 find by archaeologists at Fort McCoy, Wis., of a cord-impressed and net-impressed grit-tempered potsherd. A clay cast is produced by directly applying clay to the pottery. The clay cast will produce a positive impression of the original fabric and weaving. (Contributed photo)

“One of these things is not like the others” was the statement of the day when a pre-contact potsherd was unearthed by archaeologists with Colorado State University’s Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) in 2017.

The potsherd was unique in that it had distinct net impressions on the surface of the vessel.

In Wisconsin, there are only two types of pottery characterized with net impressions — the grit-tempered Douglass Net-Marked and the shell-tempered Baraboo Net-Marked. In the case of this potsherd, it was classified as Douglass Net-Marked due to having grit as a tempering agent.

In 1962, Robert L. Hall named the pottery type Douglass Net-Marked after John M. Douglass of the Mil waukee Public Museum who, per Hall, published the first description of the pottery type in 1946. Although Hall gives credit to Douglass, in 1884.

W.H. Holmes published an article in which he studied and described textile fabric impressions from pottery between 1881 and 1882, including pottery from Two Rivers, Wis.

Douglass Net-Marked pottery is primarily recovered from archaeological sites throughout southcentral Wisconsin and within portions of the Driftless Area and has been unearthed from archaeological sites in the following counties in Wisconsin: Burnett, Grant, Green Lake, Jefferson, Juneau, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Marquette, Milwaukee, Monroe, Ozaukee, Rock, Sauk, Shawano, Vernon, and Winnebago.

Douglass Net-Marked pottery is tempered with grit and is identified by the exterior surface treatment of net impressions, which typically consist of a knotted netted textile.

The net openings are typically lozenge shaped. Sometimes the net markings are obliterated by smoothing the exterior of the vessel, but the impressions of the knots typically remain. On some vessels, net impressions go to the rim and on others they are only on the body of the vessel with the neck being smoothed.

The vessel form is jar-shaped with deep bodies and resembles a truncated egg (imagine an egg with approximately a third of the large end removed) with a rounded to conoidal base. In general, Douglass Net-Marked ceramic vessels are not decorated.

Archaeologists hypothesize that the net and fabric impressions have a functional purpose rather than a decorative purpose. The main argument for the primary purpose for using net and fabric impressions was to make the clay stronger during the manufacturing process.

Other thoughts include use of a fabric wrapped around the pot to slow the drying process and prevent cracking, use of a cloth to lift the pot in one stage of its manufacture and unintentionally leaving impressions, and lastly, use of a damp cloth wrapped around the hand to use in shaping the vessel which would leave net impressions. Although it is quite possible that the use of net impressions could have transitioned to a decorative purpose.

This type of pottery is not well-dated, but being grit-tempered places it within the Woodland cultural period (500 B.C. to A.D. 1200; 2,500 to 800 years ago). A few sites have yielded radiocarbon dates ranging from A.D. 400 to 410 which places the use of Douglass Net-Marked pottery during the Middle Woodland stage (A.D. 100 to 500; 1,900 to 1,500 years ago), although other archaeologists have data which supports a date falling within the Late Woodland stage (A.D. 500 to 1200; 1,500 to 800 years ago).

The related photo provided is of the ceramic potsherd and its clay cast from the 2017 find by CEMML archaeologists of a cord-impressed and net-impressed grit-tempered potsherd. A clay cast is produced by directly applying clay to the pottery. The clay cast will produce a positive impression of the original fabric and weaving. Using a clay cast is better than using the negative impression shown on the potsherd, because you can see far more detail in the positive impression. As of 2018, a total of 9,920 grit-tempered potsherds have been recorded in the Fort McCoy artifact database. Of those, only 16 potsherds have been identified as Douglass Net-Marked.

Interestingly, 15 of the Douglass Net-Marked potsherds came from one site but were recovered in two separate years (1993 and 1997), while the 2017 find pictured here is from a site that is only a stone’s throw away from the other 15 potsherds. Hopefully archaeologists will be able to excavate more of this type of pottery in the future and learn more about Douglass Net-Marked pottery.

All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was sponsored by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

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 individual who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any post-contact or pre-contact site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law. The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

(Article prepared by Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands and Directorate of Public Works Natural Resources Branch.)