Flat Base Cooking Pot

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Item's Choctaw Name: Shoti

Item's English Name: Cooking Pot

Age: late1800s?

Material: Clay, mixed with coarse mussel shell.

Dimensions:

Height = 27 cm

Interior Rim Diameter: 16.2 cm

Max. Diameter: ca. 22 cm

Rim Thickness = 8.23mm

Large Temper = 15.16 mm

Origin:

Current Owner: Choctaw Nation Museum

Location: Tuskahoma, OK

Notes -

This Oklahoma Choctaw cooking pot stands out somewhat from other known examples. Its base is flat, thickened, and pedestaled. The vessel was clearly shaped while sitting on a flat surface. The clay itself has fairly good-sized pebbles included in it.

The exterior of the vessel, particularly the portion above the carination, is well-smoothed and polished. On the interior, the part blow the carination is well smoothed and polished, while the upper portion, much less so. A flat edged scraping tool has left its vertical marks on the exterior. Horizontal undulations above the carination suggest that at least this portion of the vessel was made with the coiling technique. The design marks around the rim were cut with a sharp-edged tool while the clay was fairly stiff.