Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Cultural Services

Item's Choctaw Name:  Ampo

Item's English Name:  Eating Bowl

Age:  1800s

Material: Clay, mixed with coarse mussel shell.

Dimensions:

Height = 5.7cm

Interior Rim Diameter = 9.3cm

Max Diameter = ca. 12cm

Rim Thickness = 6.58mm

Origin: Choctaw

Current Owner: Oklahoma Historical Society  (#3474.2). 

Location: Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City

Notes -  Several Choctaw eating bowl of this type are known from Oklahoma.  Made of clay, coarse mussel shell, and highly burnished with no designs, they appear to have been eating bowls.  However, their raw materials are the same as that of a cooking pot.  They may be a slightly later style than Chickachae Combed bowls.

This vessel was made by the coiling technique.  On the exterior of the base, it can be seen where several of these coils were not fully smoothed together.  The interior of the vessel has lots of temper drag marks.  The temper, is large as 10.44mm in maximum dimension. It is rare for such big temper to be used in a bowl that is highly burnished and apparently not intended for cooking.  The base of the vessel is thick.