By Amy Gernhardt
Marty Haythorn and Pam Darty shared with a Cedar Key audience their knowledge of ancient peoples and their pottery at the Cedar Key library with approximately 50 persons in attendance on an otherwise dreary day. As rain poured down outside, members of the audience got a first hand account of the pottery which Marty fashions from well researched books on the pottery of the people who lived here centuries ago. One such piece was a reproduction of a Cedar Key mound pot, round with bulging walls, reminiscent of a gourd. 
Marty Haythorn starting demonstration of making a pot.
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Marty demonstrated coil method hand building. The coils were much thicker than those in other types of pottery. While stamping the outside with a wooden paddle, the piece was rounded from the inside with an anvil, also made by Marty.
The importance of a potter who does museum quality work was underscored by Pam Darty. A National Wildlife Ranger who is an expert on the Shell Mound area north of Cedar Key, she stressed the importance of owning a reproduction, not the original artifact. 
Adding a second coil of clay to the growing pot.
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After the presentation at the library, Pam Darty led a nature walk at the Shell Mound archaeological site. Pam had photos of the mud daub houses built by primitive people and information about the time period which built the tall shell middens known as Shell Mound. The people would have had plenty of food, and the shells were distributed in order to build platforms for housing and religious structures. Trade and commerce were very advanced by these people, who preceded the Spanish in this area.
Looting of shell middens and burial sites is a major problem. The လburied treasureဝ oftentimes concerns the placement of artifacts. Anthropologists gain as much information from the layers of shells and pottery fragments as the fragments themselves. The time line is important, and a looted burial mound loses the most significant data. 
An example of a Haythorn recreation of a native American pottery piece.
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Additional information on this topic can be found in Indian Mounds You Can Visit by I. Mac Perry, Great Outdoors Publishing Co., St Petersburg, FL; Marty Haythorn at customer service @ ancienthands.com; and Pam Darty, National Wildlife Commission.
Many thanks to the library for allowing the use of the community room to host this event. 
A Haythorn recreation of a cremonial figurine.
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