?S. ?fo^.' 3^4"/" DEMERY SITE — WOOLWORTH AND WOOD 89 



occupation by a Thomas Riggs Focus group is suggested by a very 

 few sherds. 



The analysis of the pottery proceeded as follows. The rim and 

 body sherds, sacked together from the same find-spot, were first 

 matched for fits, and subsequently segregated. Body sherds were 

 classed according to surface finish, these classes including : smoothed, 

 simple-stamped, cord-roughened, check-stamped, and decorated 

 (incised or trailed). Red-filmed sherds were also separated, but this 

 filming occurred on three surfaces: smoothed, simple-stamped, and 

 decorated. During the sorting, each sherd was individually inspected 

 for temper. A single cord-roughened sherd which appears to con- 

 tain crushed shell provides the only exception to the statement that all 

 sherds are grit-tempered. 



In the descriptions to follow, the unit of description is, insofar as 

 possible, the whole vessel. Since the rim forms and the types of 

 decoration are so varied, it is probable that the estimated number of 

 vessels represented by each of the groups is reasonably accurate. In 

 addition to the reasons cited by Krieger (Newell and Krieger, 1949, 

 pp. 75-77) and by Spaulding (1956, pp. 130-131) for studying "vessel 

 types" assembled from "sherd types," is the fact that there is often 

 a discernible — and sometimes substantial — difference in the percent- 

 age of types represented in a count of rim sherds and a count of vessels 

 from a site. In spite of efforts to describe vessel types here, the 

 pottery described below should probably be regarded as rim types, 

 since so few restorable vessels were recovered. 



Only a few of the 17 pottery groups from the site are identified as 

 previously named types. The unnamed groups might have been 

 named as types by some workers, and perhaps tentative type names 

 could have been given them here. The permanent nature of "tempo- 

 rary" type names, coupled with the fact that the complex at Demery 

 is involved and geographically diffuse, suggests that type names 

 would not be advantageous. At this time, when many sites closely 

 related to Demery remain unexcavated and unreported — from the 

 mouth of the Grand River in South Dakota to the mouth of the Nio- 

 brara River in Nebraska — it does not seem proper to attach type names 

 to the ceramics from a single site, particularly when the range of 

 variation in pottery at sites down the river is unknown, at least to the 

 writers. 



^'- Except for the sherds attributed to the Thomas Riggs Focus occupa- 

 tion of Demery, the pottery is sufficiently similar in paste, surface 

 finish, and form to permit a general description of these features that 

 applies to all the ceramics from the major occupation of the site. 



