Type description form Trinkley and Zierden:1983)
Wachesaw Complicated Stamped
Manufacture: Coil technique not observed; most of the pottery was made from annular slabs of clay, although some modeling is also present. Fracture lines may occasionally be seen running latitudinal through the midsection of the pottery.
Temper: Rounded quartz sand grains in large amounts and occasional rounded pebbles up to 4 mm.
Texture: Somewhat friable, very coarse and granular.
Hardness: 3 to 4 on Moths scale.
Color: Exterior and interior colors range from light gray to very dark brown. Accidental smudging is observed on a few sherds. Cores are usually slightly darker, indicative of incomplete oxidation during firing. Surface Finish: Interiors moderately well smoothed with a hard object, but never burnished or polished. Exteriors stamped with a carved, presumably wooden (although no wood grain is observed) paddle. A design of bold, sloppy lands and grooves is found. Application is also sloppy with much smearing and over stamping. The only motif identified is the filfot scroll, although others probably exist.
Decoration: Shoulder and lip decoration is very rare, with only two examples from the study collection: rim slash punctations and large hollow reed punctations parallel to the lip.
Form:
Rim: A straight rim is most common, probably from deep jars. Very rarely a slightly everted rim will be found.
Lip: Usually strongly beveled and thickened. Also bulbous and rounded.
Body: Cylindrical jars, wide mouth hemispherical bowls. Vessel diameters range from 36 to 90 cm with a mean of 60 ' cm.
Thickness: Body varies from 8 to 14 mm, mean is 10 mm.
Probable Relations: This pottery appears to have strong ties with the Pee Dee Series (Coe 1952; Reid 1967), although it is less carefully made and is later in time. Further research is required to determine if the Pee Dee Series is ancestral to the Wachesaw Series, or if the Wachesaw pottery has only been influenced by the Lamar pattern which was spreading across the Southeast during the same time period (approximately A.D. 1650 to 1700). The pottery was made by the historic Waccamaw Indians.
Range: Poorly established at present, known only from the Wachesaw Landing site in Georgetown County, South Carolina.
Wachesaw Plain
Surface Finish: Interiors well smoothed with a hard object, but not burnished or polished. Exteriors are moderately well smoothed, but not burnished or polished.
Wachesaw Simple Stamped
Surface Finish: Interiors moderately well smoothed with a hard object, but never burnished or polished. Exteriors are stamped with a carved paddle. A design of generally bold, nearly parallel and regular lands and grooves is observed. Overstamping is observed, but the application is not as sloppy as the Wachesaw Complicated Stamped motif.