The Blackduck Culture lived in the Midwest during the Late Woodland Period of 800 to 1400 A.D. It was a hunting and gathering society with no permanent villages, yet they built burial mounds and even started to establish ricing fields. Though little remains of these people today, archaeologists have found several pieces of their pottery throughout northwestern Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba.
Blackduck pottery is mostly found in or around burial mounds. Archaeologists have discovered other artifacts in these graves as well, such as triangular or side notched projectile points, side scrapers, clay or stealite pipes, awls and copper fishhooks (Anfinson:24). Ceramics, however, are the best diagnostic features for the Blackduck culture.
Blackduck vessels are typically round in shape, with thick necks, rims and lips. Early phase Blackduck ware are generally cord wrapped paddle marked pots, and late phase Blackduck ware are usually fabric impressed pots (Budak:80). There is a variety of colors found on these vessels, ranging from gray to yellow, but how these colors were made is an area in which little is known. The pots were formed by the paddle and anvil style or in fabric containers. A crushed rock, such as granite, was used to temper the pieces.
As with most pottery, Blackduck ware is best identified by its designs. In The Handbook of Minnesota Prehistoric Ceramics, Scott Anfinson notes that decorations on Blackduck ware is confined to the upper part of the vessel's inside rim, lip, upper rim and neck area, and lip decoration is universal to all decorated Blackduck pottery (26). There are many types of designs on the various pieces of Blackduck ware, including punctate (deep dots or round circles), cord wrapped stick impressions (horizontal slashes), or brushing (also known as combing). Brushing has been described as a characteristic trait of Blackduck ware (Anfinson:27); it is similar to rolling a stick across wet mud, which leaves a mark across a piece of pottery that looks like either horizontal or vertical scratches.
Though Blackduck ware is a type of pottery common to Minnesota, few vessels have been found intact. One Blackduck pot has been discovered intact near the Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota. This is a rare find; as Michael Budak wrote, "Pottery vessels manufactured during the Woodland Period are usually quite fragile, primarily because of the relatively low firing temperature . . . any pot found abandoned whole, either purposely or accidentally, is eventually crushed" (78).
Budak, Michael K. "A Blackduck Mortuary Vessel from the Lake of the Woods." Minnesota Archaeologist. June 1981: 78-81.
Anfinson, Scott (Ed.). A Handbook of Minnesota Prehistoric Ceramics. Fort Snelling, MN: Minnesota Archaeological Society, 1979.