Jar · Mississippian
Mississippian shell-tempered jar
900–1600 CE, Mississippian, Cahokia
The shell-tempered jar is the everyday cooking and storage vessel of Mississippian societies across the Southeast and Midwest, about 900 to 1,600 CE, made with crushed mussel shell in the clay. It has a globular body, short flared rim and loop or strap handles and was made in vast numbers. Complete examples are usually from graves.
| Object | Jar |
|---|---|
| Dates | 900–1600 CE |
| Period | Mississippian |
| Cultures | Mississippian, Cahokia |
| Regions | North America — Southeast, North America — Eastern Woodlands |
Diagnostic traits
Globular jar with a short flared rim, loop or strap handles and crushed mussel-shell temper; plain or incised.
Identification
Shell temper shows as white platy voids or flakes in the paste, unlike the grit or grog temper of Woodland jars and Caddo vessels; handles are loop (early) or strap (late) and rims are short and everted. Surfaces are plain, incised or, in the Central Valley, red-slipped or painted. Cordmarking is rare except in Fort Ancient.
Reproductions and fakes
Whole jars are reconstructed from unrelated sherds and heavily filled; ultraviolet light shows restoration. Outright fakes are made in the Southeast and Mexico with shell temper but lack use wear, fire clouds and soot.
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Mississippian shell-tempered jar" (Artifact type). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/types/mississippian-shell-tempered-jar. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-mississippian-shell-tempered-jar,
title = {Mississippian shell-tempered jar},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/types/mississippian-shell-tempered-jar}},
year = {2026},
note = {Artifact type article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.