Decorative Tools & Motifs for Prehistoric Ceramics Key to Ceramic Tool Kit

1. Carved wood tools used in smoothing and modeling of clay. 2. Quill tipped brush used in smoothing vessel surface. 3. Cord wrapped paddle used in compressing clay body during manufacture. This tool also provided the rough surface finish. 4. Lithics used for incised decorations. 5. Shell edges were often used as tools in decoration. 6. Wooden or bone combs were also used to decorate pottery. Surface Treatments for North Carolina Pottery

Cord Marked Net Impressed

Fabric Impressed Incised Detail of a cord marked surface

Linear incisions and shell stamping Linear Incisions

Shell stamping

and net impressed designs

Pottery fragment from eastern North Carolina, decorated with impressions of cordage, ca. 100 BC-AD 800 Ceramic artifacts from the South Carolina-Georgia Piedmont

Ceramic artifacts from the South Carolina-Georgia Piedmont