Dr. Emily Bartz is pictured with pottery sherds and a replicated pot.
Special to arkadelphian.com
March is Arkansas Archeology Month, a time to celebrate and learn about Arkansas’s long history. The Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society will host a talk by Dr. Emily Bartz of the Arkansas Archeological Survey on “North America’s First Pottery: Insights into Ancient Community and Cuisine.”
The talk will take place on Tuesday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in the Rainey Room in the new CIC Building at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.
Pottery holds the power to reveal deep insights into the lives of ancient communities. In this talk, Dr. Emily Bartz will explore the cultural history of the Stallings culture, the creators of North America’s earliest pottery, and their remarkable innovations in the Southeast. These early pots were not just functional — they reflect a unique cultural tradition of indirect-heat cooking that set them apart from other ancient culinary practices in North America.
Drawing from experimental archaeology, including stone-boiling simulations with replica Stallings pottery, Dr. Bartz highlights the technical and cultural ingenuity of these early potters. The presentation will conclude with pioneering results from organic residue analysis, shedding light on what was cooked in these ancient vessels and how these findings deepen our understanding of early culinary practices and community life in the ancient Southeast. Join us for a journey through the intersections of clay, culture, and cuisine.
Bartz is the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Station Archeologist at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff Research Station. She earned her PhD in anthropology at University of Florida in 2024. Her dissertation research employed organic residue analysis and experimental archeology to shed light on early hunter-gatherer foodways in the North American Southeast. Now in Arkansas, she plans to leverage her experience in the study and re-creation of ancestral food practices and cooking technologies to further public interest and participation in archeology and local history in the Pine Bluff station area.