Ancestral Caddo Fine Ware Vessels from Cahokian Sites in the Mid-Continent, ca. A.D. 1050-1300

Abstract

Ancestral Caddo ceramic vessels and ceramic vessel sherds have been identified from Cahokia and other sites in the U.S. Midwest in contexts dating from ca. A.D. 1050-1300. Archaeological findings from recent work in the East St. Louis Precinct by the Illinois State Archaeological Survey provides a wealth of data on the Mississippian ceramics found there as well as ceramic wares of likely ancestral Caddo manufacture. These Caddo wares comprise less than 0.3 percent of the more than 15,600 vessel batches in the East St. Louis Precinct assemblage, and almost all of them are on local pastes. It is probable, therefore, that these potters that had emigrated to Cahokia and were living there.