A Unique Ceramic Jar from Blood Run

Dale R. Henning

This article was written for the Fall 2021 Newsletter of the Iowa Archeological Society.  If you enjoyed this content and would like to receive the Newsletter on a quarterly basis, join the IAS.

The gravel quarry on the Blood Run village site directed by “Swede” Ageson was visited in 1984 or 85 by his son Robert and his two boys.  Robert saw the dark profile of a prehistoric storage pit in the pit wall and in the upper part of that pit, there was one side of a large pottery vessel.  Robert wanted to rescue that jar before the storage pit, pot and all, broke away and slid down the loose gravel wall, scattering pottery fragments, broken bones and other prehistoric refuse down the slope.  He came up with a unique method for a safe recovery.

Robert and his boys were lifted up to the pit face in an endloader bucket managed by the senior Ageson.  There they could safely remove the pot.  Robert freed the pot, shook out the loose gravel inside it and the boys held onto the sides as the bucket was lowered to the mine floor.  They discovered that the pot was broken and the bottom was gone; about 25 pieces remained.  The recovered fragments were put in a box where they remained until October 12, 2000, when Robert and I undertook restoration of the vessel, which was complete other than a hole (ca. 24x28cm) in the bottom.  Restoration was done in Ageson’s kitchen and took most of a day.  The final assembly was successfully stabilized through the night by several large rubber bands; the vessel has retained its shape for over two decades.

Vessel description

This vessel is principally shell tempered, characteristic of Oneota pottery found across the Prairie Peninsula, but not on the Blood Run site.  Some shell temper is found in the majority of vessel fragments but limestone, grit, sand and grog (crushed pottery) tempered fragments were often identified, sometimes as the principal temper, sometimes as secondary temper (see Henning and Schermer 2004: 460–462, Table 5.4).  Only 37 of 343 (ca.9.3%) rim sherds excavated in 1985–86 were tempered solely with slaked shell; this vessel (Figure 1) is included in that number.

While one of the largest Oneota jars restored, it properly ranks as medium-sized. Much larger jar fragments, parts of vessels fashioned for storage of foodstuffs, have been found in excavated village sites. This jar has a slightly ovoid orifice, a nearly circular body, slightly flaring straight to outcurving rim, sharply angular neck, curved shoulder, rounded base and squat profile. Two opposed strap handles are located immediately below the lip and to the upper shoulder. Both appear to have been molded to the vessel surfaces and were obviously firmly attached (Figure 2).

The lip is decorated with closely-spaced impressions made when the clay was moist and flexible.  The handles bear three parallel, vertical trailed lines from rim to shoulder.   The shoulder is decorated with groups of oblique trailed lines which extend from the neck to the shoulder outer margin.  Trailed lines are applied to a vessel surface when the clay is moist and pliable.  On this vessel, many lines are filled with char comprised of food particles.

A small patch, visible only from the vessel interior, was applied to a hole in the side (Figure 1).  The patch is circular, c. 4.5 cm in diameter and appears to have been made of a piece of moist clay pressed into the hole with a rounded dowel, then smoothed before refiring (Figure 3).

Vessel Dimensions

Maximum Diameter 38.7 cm
Vessel Depth 24.8 cm
Rim Length 40 mm
Orifice diameter (interior) 28.0–30.5 cm (slightly ovoid)
Lip thickness 7–9 mm
Neck thickness c. 12 mm
Shoulder edge thickness 3–5 mm
Bottom thickness 3 mm

Handle measurements, descriptions

Handle #1 (Figure 1)
Located 14 mm below lip
Length c. 35 mm
Width 44 mm - upper rim,  40 mm - upper shoulder
Strap thickness 10 mm - near lip, 10 mm - above shoulder 
Along the right edge, a crescentic notch is worn and smoothed (5 mm deep, 14 mm wide)
Along the left edge, slight wear.

Handle #2 (Figures 1 and 2)
Located 13 mm below lip
Length c. 35 mm
Width 40 mm below lip, 39 mm - upper shoulder
Strap thickness 12 mm - near lip, 8 mm - above shoulder
Along right edge, a crescentic notch is worn and smoothed (7 mm deep, 16 mm wide)
Along left edge, slight wear. 

Vessel dates

Three AMS radiocarbon dates employing ceramic residue from the Ageson vessel were prepared by the PaleoResearch Institute, Inc. (Cummings 2018).  Samples of charred material were scraped from the 1) shoulder exterior, 2) inner rim, 3) lower interior surface.  Each sample was placed in a clean, sealed container (small plastic bag).  Adequate samples 1) A.D. 1550–1640  and 2) A.D. 1540–1640, dated nearly the same; 3) A.D. 1430–1470, was a significantly smaller sample taken from a different location, either of which (or, both) might have been a factor in its dating about a century earlier.

More AMS dates taken from the same vessel was recommended in the report (op cit.).  The date ranges suggested through analysis of samples 1) and 2) conform closely to both historic and archaeologically-derived data.  The sample 3) date range may be too early.

Discussion

This Oneota jar can offer significant information about itself and those that made and used it.  It is comparable to the type Midway Incised, one of several Classic horizon (A.D. 1500-1625) types identified for the LaCrosse locality (Boszhardt 1994).  Its presence on Blood Run suggests both temporal and cultural relationships of some Blood Run occupants to contemporaneous Oneota groups occupying sites in the upper Mississippi valley, likely members of the Iowa tribe.  Those Oneota villagers used shell temper exclusively in all of their ceramic vessels.  This jar could be ‘lost’ in a collection of pottery from a Valley View phase site located on the LaCrosse terrace.

Blood Run is identified as an Omaha village on a number of early European maps; the Iowa, Oto, Arikara and Cheyenne are mentioned as residing there or nearby (Henning and Thiessen 2004; Wedel 1981, 1986).  Of these tribes, the Iowa appear most consistently on early maps and historic accounts; the purely shell-tempered vessels found on Blood Run and nearby village sites tend to confirm the Iowa presence.

The wear patterns on the handles are indeed unique; the worn and smoothed notches suggest that the vessel had been modified for cooking by suspension over a fire, very likely employing a rawhide or fiber rope or strap.  Precisely how this suspension was set up is a mystery.

The application of a patch to repair a hole in a vessel was rarely done by Oneota potters, but appears to have been at least temporarily successful in this instance.

Two of the AMS radiocarbon dates discussed above conform very well to the time and the vessel type, Midway Incised, was produced on the LaCrosse terrace and elsewhere in the western Prairie Peninsula along with several other named vessel types.  A.D. 1625 marks the end of Oneota residence on the LaCrosse terrace, apparently crossing the Mississippi River and settling in familiar locales in the Upper Iowa and Root River valleys as well as the Okoboji phase villages and Blood Run.  There is every reason to believe that we are tracing the movements of the Iowa tribe as they fled westward to escape the European diseases and warring tribes from the east.

The Ageson vessel research potential has been only lightly plumbed in the course of presenting this account.  With layers of char on both the exterior and interior surfaces, it offers the potential for employment of additional dating techniques, analyses of food residues, and a host of analyses that will be forthcoming in the future.

Robert Ageson has donated this Oneota jar to the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, where it will be available for future study.

References Cited

Boszhardt, Robert F.
1994 Oneota Group Continuity at LaCrosse: The Brice Prairie, Pammel Creek and Valley View Phases.  The Wisconsin Archeologist 75(3-4): 173–236.

Cummings, Linda Scott
2018 AMS Radiocarbon Dating Charred Food Crust from the Ageson Vessel, 13LO2, Blood Run Oneota Site, Lyon County, Iowa.  PaleoResearch Institute Technical Report 2016-111c.  PaleoResearch Institute, Inc. Golden, Colorado.  

Thomas D. Thiessen
2004 Traditional and Historical Summary  In  Central Siouans in the Northeastern Plains: Oneota Archaeology and the Blood Run Site.  Dale R. Henning and Thomas D. Thiessen, editors. pp. 355–380, Plains Anthropologist Memoir 36.

Wedel, Mildred Mott
1981 The Ioway, Oto, and Omaha Indians in 1700.  Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society 28:1–13.
1986 Peering at the Ioway Indians Through the Mist of Time: 1650–Circa 1700.  Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society 23:1–74.