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When fired, pure clay will shrink and crack. A mixture called "temper" must be added to strengthen the clay in the firing process. In Stallings Island pottery, Native Americans used Spanish Moss as a temper. Archaeologists call this "fiber-tempered pottery."
The Fall Line
For more than 10,000 years, people have lived along the Savannah River. Stone spear points and tools have been found along both the South Carolina and Georgia shorelines, indicating a long history of hunting and gathering. The earliest pottery in North America was first identified on Stallings Island, about eight miles upriver from North Augusta, and dates to at least 4,500 years ago.
Travel
All of the southeastern Native Americans traveled extensively by canoe, and the Savannah River provided an excellent north-south waterway. East-west travel in prehistoric times was on foot, since horses were not introduced until European contact.
It often took many days to cross wide forests, deep ravines, and large river valleys on foot. It was also easiest to cross large rivers where they were wide and shallow. In South Carolina and Georgia, wide shallows exist mainly at the Fall Line, where the hilly Piedmont meets the flat Coastal Plain.
Ideal Location
For many centuries, small settlements and large villages have been situated along this strategic stretch of the river. At least 10 Native American tribes were known to have lived in this area between the 1650s and the 1830s. North Augusta and Augusta were both founded by European settlers who also found this location to be the farthest upstream that large boats could navigate. Today, the shallows of the Savannah River are usually submerged by high water, but Interstate 20 still follows the same basic route that prehistoric travelers walked many thousands of years ago.
The Fall Line crosses through this region, creating shallow shoals within the Savannah River. These shoals provided easy access for Native Americans and European settlers to cross the large river. As a result, many Native American and historic trails ran through the Augusta-North Augusta region. (Image courtesy US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District)
Stone tools have provided evidence of how people have lived along this river for thousands of years. In the beginning, projectile points were large and often used for tips of spears for hunting large game. Thousands of years later, agriculture became a staple for Native American societies along the river. With agriculture and the introduction of the bow and arrow, people made smaller projectile points for hunting smaller game.