Grade Level: 3rd grade
Title: People and Pots in Michigan’s
Late Woodland Period
Stage 1 - Desired Results
Goals:
1) Students will be introduced to how archaeologists find and recognize Late Woodland pottery in Michigan, and
how Late Woodland pottery was made and used.
2) Students will know the names and general locations and characteristics of Michigan’s Late Woodland Culture
groups.
3) Students will recognize that styles of objects can symbolize different groups of people.
(Grade 3 GLCEs) H3.0.1, H3.0.2, H3.0.7 G1.0.2, G2.0.1, G5.02
Understanding(s):
Essential Questions(s):
Students will understand that…
1) Decorative patterns on pots correspond to
1) Where do archaeologists find pottery?
different groups of pre-contact Native
2) What can pottery teach us?
American people.
3) What groups made pottery?
2) Pots and decorative styles were exchanged.
4) Why some pots look different than others?
3) Archaeologists learn basic information from
pre-contact pottery
Students will know…
Students will be able to…
1) That archaeologists use different styles of pottery to learn about different Native American groups;
2) That each group in the Late Woodland period (AD1200-1400) had a unique style of pottery;
3) That sometimes these pottery styles influenced other, neighboring groups;
4) Place the different Late Woodland culture groups on a map.
Stage 2 - Assessment of Evidence
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Performance Tasks(s):
Teams will use a Michigan Late Woodland
culture name.
Teams will locate their culture groups on the
map.
Students will create potsherds using their
group’s decorative style.
Class will compare styles and group
information.
Teams will write a paragraph about their group
and their comparison of pottery features.
Other Evidence:
Video: Maple sap boiling in a reproduction Woodland pot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-s24QkwcOw
Video: Firing Woodland pots:
http://www.youtube.com/user/loosanarrow#p/a/u/1/w
q69yJVi1Zk
Stage 3 - Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
People and Pots in Michigan’s Late Woodland Period Archaeologists have discovered several different styles of pottery associated with sites from the Late Woodland Period. Some styles were indigenous to Michigan; other styles like Younge and Oneota came from nearby groups. Pottery made from local clay is one of the distinguishing features of the Woodland Period in Michigan. Woodland peoples used pots for cooking and storage. Most pots were made using the coil technique. Potters built up coils to the desired height and shape, and then they whacked them with a cord-­‐wrapped paddle. This helped smooth the sides and get out air bubbles that might cause the pot to burst when fired. Potters used sticks (some wrapped with plant cord) and shells to poke, trace and press decoration into pots. Sometimes they added an extra piece around the rim of the pot to thicken it. Most decoration was placed on the rim and top of pots. The bodies of pots were usually marked with a cord wrapped paddle, or a fishing net or plant-­‐fiber fabric was pressed into them giving them a textured look. Archeologists rarely find whole pots on sites in Michigan, so this activity will focus on making sherds, or pieces that imitate Michigan Late Woodland pots. This will give the students a better idea of what pots looked like when they are found (that is how much is left to find). It will also make it easier for them to create a piece that looks like an original sherd. Materials: • Wooden sticks and toothpicks (leave some sticks bare; wrap some around one end with hemp garden twine). • Wooden paddle or paint stir stick with hemp garden twine wrapped and glued around one end. • Model Magic in brown earth colors. 2
Most Woodland period pots were decorated using simple tools, cord-­‐wrapped paddles and sticks, plain sticks, etc. To make pot sherds: 1) Divide class into teams, assign each team a Woodland culture name, and supply them with the information for their culture and pot style drawing. 2) Give each team a set of pottery tools and enough model magic for each student to make a 4-­‐inch flattened disk of clay. 3) Have students form a flat disk of clay about ¼ -­‐inch in thickness, the have them use the tools to impress decorations following their culture’s style. 4) After the Model Magic dries, the edges of the sherds can be torn off to look more like a broken piece of pottery. 5) Have the class compare their pots styles and write a short paragraph about their group and its style. How did they make it? Is it similar to others, or really different? Did they borrow from another group’s style? What does their style say about your group? 6) You could also have students create their own styles and compare them to the drawings of prehistoric pottery. Figure 1 : Sample of Model Magic sherds
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People and Pots in Michigan’s Late Woodland Period Background: Late Woodland Pottery Pottery sherds have been excavated from many sites across Michigan. By carefully keeping track of what layer of soil they come from archaeologists can establish dates for pottery. This lets archaeologists know which styles of pottery come earlier or later than others, and lets them track styles over time. When pottery styles change in a region archaeologists infer that something has changed with the people using and making the pottery—there may a new style in fashion, or maybe new residents in the neighborhood. Woodland people made most pots by the coiling method. They used local clays dug from the ground and finely crushed rock helped bind the clay together. This rock grit is called temper. Very few pots in Michigan show the use of crushed clamshells as temper. After a pot was built up the coils were flattened and smoothed together, often with a wooden paddle wrapped in plant fiber cord. This left a distinctive pattern all over the body of the pot, and helped remove air bubbles from the clay that might break the pot when it was fired. Often cord, netting or fabric made from plants was pressed into the body. The rim of a pot was usually saved for the fanciest decorations. Sticks, both plain and wrapped in cord, stones, and shells were used to press lines, dots (punctuates), cross hatching, and ridges in various patterns. On many pots the rim was thickened and built up, with ridges or even points. This decorative technique also helped strengthen the pot. Pot bases were often rounded, sometimes cone-­‐shaped. Unlike our dishes today that have flat bases for setting on counters and tables, the rounded bases of Late Woodland pots fit snugly into the ashes of a campfire and could be easily propped up with a few rocks. When pots were decorated and completely dry, they were fired. A wood fire was built and allowed to die down. Then the pots were placed in the coals and ashes, and wood was piled on top. When this wood had burned the pots had to cool down. Then, while still warm, the pots were carefully removed from the remains of the fire using sticks. The decoration on Late Woodland pots can also tell us something about pre-­‐contact fabric, cordage and nets made from plant fibers. When these items were pressed into pots to decorate them, a negative impression of the weave and twist of the cloth and fiber was left on the pot. Sometimes cooking residue is found, still stuck on the inside of pots. These “stuck on messes” have been radiocarbon dated. Occasionally, a personal touch is discovered when archaeologists find a fingerprint left by a potter who lived hundreds of years ago! 4
Late Woodland Culture Groups in Michigan, AD 1200-­‐1400 Blackduck people lived in the northwestern Upper Peninsula and along the northern shore of Lake Superior. • They were hunters. • They traveled most of the year and lived in small camps. • They probably traded for corn with groups living farther south. Juntunen people lived around the Straits of Mackinac. • They were fishermen during the summer. • They spent fall and winter in the woods hunting. • Juntunen pots had high, pointed rims: a style borrowed from their neighbors. Oneota people lived in the southwestern Upper Peninsula and in Wisconsin • They were farmers. • They grew corn, beans and squash. • Oneota people used their finger tips to decorate their pots. Peninsular Woodland people lived in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula • They lived by hunting, gathering plants, fishing, and planting small gardens. • They lived near the lake shore in summer and moved into the woods to hunt during the winter. • Their pottery was tempered with crushed rock 5
Allegan people lived in the southwestern part of the Lower Peninsula • They were farmers and grew corn, beans and squash. • Allegan people also hunted sometimes. • They traded with Fisher people who lived to the south. Fisher people followed the style of people who lived on the Mississippi River far to the south • Fisher folk were farmers and grew corn, beans and squash. • They visited Michigan to hunt and trade. • Their pottery was tempered with ground up shells. Younge people lived in the southeastern part of the Lower Peninsula • They were farmers who grew corn, bean and squash. • They lived in large villages. • Their pottery had large pointed rims like their neighbors to the east. 6
Figure 2 - Each group had its own style of pottery
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Figure 3 - Blackduck pot (Deb Malewski)
Figure 4 – Oneota/Fisher style pot (Deb Malewski)
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Figure 5 - Juntunen Ware pot (Deb Malewski)
Figure 6 - Wayne Ware pot (Deb Malewski)
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Figure 7 - Younge pot (Deb Malewski)
Figure 4 - Mackinac Ware pot, AD1000-1200 (Deb Malewski)
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Figure 5 - Bois Blanc pot, AD1000-1200 (Deb Malewski)
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Figure 6 - Late Woodland people making cattail mats, arrows, and pots (Ohio Historical Society)
Figure 7 - Women shaping a pot and removing a pot from the fire (Deb Malewski)
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Figure 8 - A reproduction Late Woodland pot
Figure 9 - Pieces (sherds) of Late Woodland pottery
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Figure 10 - Late Woodland rim sherds
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