The Pre-Iroquoian Pottery of New York State

Abstract

The establishment of ceramic type categories for the pre-Iroquoian horizons of New York state, exclusive of the Tidewater area, was undertaken for a number of reasons. Primarily, it was believed that such an analysis, breaking down the existing ware divisions into finer type inventories, would prove useful in obtaining a more minute chronological differentiation of the Owasco and Point Peninsula cultures than would be possible on any other basis, and in so doing, would aid in clarifying their possible relationships as well as their conceivable affinities with other major ceramic manifestations in the New York area. It was also hoped that our survey might reveal significant areal subdivisions which eventually might be referred to historic tribal units. Finally, the achievement of a pottery typology for New York would elucidate problems of prehistoric culture diffusion and development over the Northeastern area and might, indeed, contribute to broader interpretations of cultural dynamics and processes of acculturation involved in the complex interconnections of sequential archaeological components.