Archaeologists often use pottery styles to date sites and to infer relationships between sites. Changes in pottery styles reflect the potters’ external influences and new inspirations. These three pottery vessel fragments demonstrate how pottery styles changed through time at villages near Red Wing, Minnesota. During the Silvernale Phase (ca. 1125 – 1175), potters tended to make vessels with low, rolled rims and decorated them with simple, repeating, curvilinear designs. From about 1175 – 1200, during the Link Phase, potters began elaborating on the neck, drawing it up higher and sometimes adding tabs. Finally, during the Bartron Phase (ca. 1200 – 1275) potters created vessels that had high rims and were elaborately decorated over the entire shoulder area.

These artifacts were selected because they represent current archaeological research at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The Science Museum is actively involved in a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary effort to research the archaeology of the Red Wing villages. Museum scientists are researching the relationships between villages, reconstructing the local environment of 1,000 years ago, and curating collections from past and current excavations.
– Ed Fleming, Curator of Archaeology