Doreen Ozker provided a written description of the pottery from Sumac Bluff in her 1976 publication but did not illustrate any

Doreen Ozker provided a written description of the pottery from Sumac Bluff in her 1976 publication but did not illustrate any (Ozker 1976:285-288). The photo gallery on this page includes photographs of most the diagnostic rimsherds and decorated bodysherds from the site. The pottery from Sumac Bluff also represents a longer time span than originally thought by Ozker and spans the period from the Early Woodland (ca. 400 B.C.) to the late Late Woodland (ca. 1400-1600 A.D.).

Fourteen bodysherds from the site were described as having interior and exterior cordmarking in the orginal report. This is one of the defining characteristics of Early Woodland pottery in Michigan. Photos 1 and 2 illustrate the exterior and interior, respectively, of one of these sherds. All of these sherds from Sumac Bluff are quiet worn. And the Sumac Bluff sherds are quiet similar to Early Woodland pottery from site 20IA37 near Ionia, Michigan dating to ca. 400 B.C. (Garland and Beld 1999:125-146).

Several rimsherds (Photos 3 and 4) belong to the early Late Woodland pottery type known as Wayne Ware or Saginaw Thin (in central Michigan). These small, thin-walled vessels generally date around 600-900 A.D. There are also several rimsherds from a vessel with thickened (rolled) and cordwrapped stick impressed lip (Photo 5).

A rimsherd with notches on the top of the lip (Photos 6 and 7) and several fingernail impressed bodysherds (Photo 8) have decoration similar to that on vessels from sites dating to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries A.D. in central lower Michigan (Beld and Burk 1996).

Scott G. Beld and Ronald G. Burk (1996), "The Slavik Site (20GR221), Elba Township, Gratiot County, Michigan," pages 6-62 in Slavik Site-Bad/Maple River Archaeological Survey, S95-336, edited by Scott G. Beld (Unpublished report on file at the Office of the State Archaeologist, Michigan Historical Center, Lansing).

Elizabeth B. Garland and Scott G. Beld (1999), "Chapter 7, The Early Woodland: Ceramics, Domesticated Plants, and Burial Mounds Foretell the Shape of the Future," pages 125-146 in Retrieving Michigan's Buried Past: The Archaeology of the Great Lakes State, edited by John R. Halsey (Cranbrook Institute of Science Bulletin 64, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 1999).

Doreen Ozker (1976), "Sumac Bluff(20MD25): A Site on the Chippewa River in Midland," The Michigan Archaeologist 22 (1976), pages 283-313.