Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Cherokee pottery, archeological excavation, 1877

  • wcu_craft_revival-4972.jpg
  • This 1877 photograph, by an unknown photographer, was taken of an assortment of pottery that was excavated from a farm site in Lebanon, Tennessee. Several of these resemble pieces of pottery forms that were known to have been made by the Cherokee prior to European contact. Pottery vessels were particularly valuable in Native American culture, as they provided a means to cook food over a fire. The distinctive rounded or cone-shaped bottoms of traditional Cherokee cooking vessels could be balanced on rocks in a fire and provided an even cooking surface without putting out the fire.