Why Study Caddo Pottery?
Why do the archeologists who study the ancient Caddo spend such an inordinate amount of time and effort excavating, reconstructing, and studying Caddo pottery? For archeologists, Caddo pottery is the prime evidence used to identify and date ancient traces of the Caddos’ past. Lacking potsherds, we could scarcely identify the vast majority of Caddo archeological sites as being Caddo. While there are many other distinctive kinds of archeological evidence of Caddo life, such as house patterns, pottery remains indispensable for understanding the past for three main reasons. First, the ancient and early historic Caddo were superb potters and made and used lots of pottery. Sites representing small farmsteads where a single family once lived for short durations will have hundreds of potsherds. Villages and ceremonial centers often have tens or hundreds of thousands of potsherds and, in graves, many whole or almost whole pots. Secondly, pottery is relatively durable and can often be identified
