The bases of the pots were rounded, or even pointed, which meant that, when placed in the cooking fire, more of the surface was exposed to the heat of the coals than if there were a broad flat bottom. A flat base would have smothered the coals it rested on and all that surface would then have been in the coolest part of the fire. The high rim probably functioned to keep ashes and other debris from falling into the pot. To make sure it did not tip over it was supported on three sides by stones. These also got hot and helped keep the food simmering.

The clay was mixed with “temper” of grit, finely crushed shell or bits of sherds from broken pots. Clay has the finest particles of any earth, which grip this temper more firmly than they do each other as the pot is dried and then fired, thus giving more strength.

The Indians never developed the potter’s wheel but built up their vessels by the coiling method, forming the clay, while it was moist and soft, between their palms into rolls about an inch thick and eight or ten inches long. As the pot grew, each new roll was bent and pinched onto the rim of what had gone before and then squeezed between the fingers into the desired shape and

about a quarter of an inch of thickness. After the pot was shaped it was scraped and smoothed until all traces of the potter’s finger marks, and even the lines where one coil joined onto the next, were gone.

Now, while the clay was still soft, was the time for decoration. A pointed stick could make designs of small puncture marks, or draw lines. A wooden comb would make parallel lines. A little notched disc could be rolled along, making even rows of dents in the clay. The end of a hollow reed would make perfect circles, all of the same size. Experts can often recognize by shape and design where a pot was made and how long ago. Once pottery has been fired it is so hard that even when a pot has been broken the pieces never decay and can be glued together again to be studied.

After the pot had dried thoroughly, firing was the final step. The fire had to burn for an hour or so before the pots were put in it so that all moisture from the ground would be evaporated. Steam coming from the ground or from damp wood could make a pot heat unevenly and crack. After an hour of intense heat the clay underwent a chemical change. The particles fused together into a new substance more like stone than earth. But it was brittle and the fire had to die down slowly or the pot might still have cracked.

When it was finished, a miracle of ingenuity, it might last a day or a generation. Eventually it was almost certain to be broken and relegated to the trash heap, valuable only to future archaeologists. Metal pots soon replaced clay ones when the European traders appeared, and very few Woodlands Indians today know how to make the old castellated cooking pots.