Hilgeman, Sherri L. (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University)
NEW FIRE CEREMONY PLATES AT THE ANGEL SITE
Angel Negative Painted is the type name given to the unclipped and red-slipped
negative painted plates found in relatively large numbers at the Angel and Kincaid
sites on the lower Ohio River. The "type collection" for the Angel Negative Painted
plates is from the Angel site (12 Vg 1). The total negative painted collection
from Angel consists of about 4500 sherds and four vessels, ca. 0.8% of the total
pottery assemblage. Approximately 98% of these 4500 sherds are negative painted
plate rim sherds.
Negative painted ceramics appear to be relatively restricted to four "centers":
the Angel and Kincaid sites and their environs, the Cairo Lowlands/Sikeston Ridge
region of southeast Missouri, and the Nashville Basin of west-central Tennessee.
Nashville Negative Painted subsumes vessels from the Cumberland River valley in
central Tennessee. Vessel forms include lobed-bodied, carafe-neck bottles, dog
and owl effigy bottles, and human effigy bottles. Sikeston Negative Painted refers
to specimens found primarily in the Cairo Lowlands/ Sikeston Ridge Region of southeast
Missouri, including those which are negative painted and those which have direct
painting in combination with negative painting. Vessel forms are primarily carafe-necked
water bottles but also include human, animal, and fish effigy bottles. Kincaid
Negative Painted refers to the negative painted, red-slipped or unshipped carafe-necked
water bottle common at that southern Illinois site.
Just as Angel Negative Painted is one of a group of four types of negative painted
ceramics, it, O'Byam Incised, and Wells Incised form a group of three decorated
pottery types linked by the same vessel form--the plate--and a similar line- filled
triangular design. At Angel the design is rendered by negative painting; incised
plates are extremely rare. Elsewhere in the lower Ohio and middle Mississippi
valleys the design is commonly expressed by incising; negative painted examples
are rare or absent except at Kincaid.
If the sherd is taken as the unit of analysis, there are three basic design layouts.
By far the most common of the three layouts is the division of the rim area into
a series of bounded triangular areas. The triangular areas are filled with small
geometric elements. (see Figure 7 ) The
second-most-common group of design layouts consists of multiple Southeastern Ceremonial
Complex motifs or the alteration of those motifs with bounded triangular areas.
The most numerous of the motifs are representations of the cross-in- circle and
the sun circle. very rare Southeastern Ceremonial Complex motifs include bilobed
arrows, pileated or ivory-billed woodpecker and owl heads, and a group of motifs
most similar to the striped/ spotted pole. The rarest design layout is accomplished
by dividing the rim into a series of circles painted concentrically to the rim
and well edges. Triangles and semicircles are attached to the circles, and dots
are placed between the circles.
If the appearance of the whole plate is considered, it is obvious that these design
layouts were purposively constructed so that the plates themselves represented
the cross-in-circle and sun circle motifs. The triangular areas and the triangle-embellished
concentric circles are analogous to the rays of the sun circle. The plates with
the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex motifs are laid out so that the plates are
representations of the cross-in- circle motif.
These "ceremonial" plates axe linked by design layouts and motifs to the Southeastern
"fire-sun-diety complex" and, by extension, to the pan-Southeastern new fire or
green corn ceremony at which this complex was at the fore. These vessels would
have been set apart from ordinary use and their ritual significance identified
by the designs painted on them. In addition, there is some evidence in the Southeastern
ethno-historic literature for the manufacture, use, and deliberate breaking of
pottery vessels in connection with the ceremony. Therefore, I would suggest that
they are ritual serving vessels made especially for and perhaps only used during
an Angel ceremony at the Angel site similar to the recorded new fire or green
corn ceremony. [return to 1988 abstracts menu][continue to next]