During Late Woodland times (roughly A.D. 1000 to contact with Europeans) in northern Ontario, there were two main ceramic traditions. In the west and northwest, Selkirk ceramics (see Exhibit Specimen 9) occurred. However, there was substantial overlap with distinctive Blackduck pottery which was found throughout northern Ontario and into adjacent areas of Manitoba and Minnesota.

This pot is a fine, yet unusually small example of a Blackduck pot. It is characterised by a globular, cord-impressed body, a constricted neck and an everted, outflarring rim. Decorations are limited to the rim and the adjacent portion of the neck. The rim bears short cord-impressions, likely produced by a cord-wrapped stick of some kind. Below the lip is a band of short, oblique, cord-wrapped stick impressions above two parallel lines of single cord-wrapped stick impressions. At regular intervals, exterior punctates which raise interior bosses were placed between the lines of cord-wrapped stick impressions. The interior surface is smooth except for a band of oblique cord-wrapped stick impressions between the lip of the rim and the interior bosses.

This artifact was kindly made available for this exhibit by the Department of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Further Reading

Dawson, K.C.A.
1974 The McCluskey Site. National Museum of Man, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercuries Series Paper No.25. Ottawa.

Wilford, L.A.
1941 A Tentative Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota. American Antiquity, 6(3):231-249.

1955 A Revised Classification of the Prehistoric Cultures of Minnesota. American Antiquity, 21(2):130-142.

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