The frequency and typology of ceramic sites in western Wyoming

Native ceramics are rare in the northwestern High Plains and Central Rocky Mountains where prehistory is dominated by mobile foraging societies and pottery appears late in the archaeological record. Our survey of the Wyoming Cultural Resource Information System for 11 western Wyoming counties and the Yellowstone National Park found 209 sites with sherd frequencies ranging from less than 10 to more than 1,000 yielding an estimate of 6175 total sherds. Ceramic sites are most common in southwest Wyoming, due in part to intense energy development and associated archaeological inventories but also to the overlap of multi-regional ceramic traditions. Ceramic typologies for western Wyoming are poorly standardized with variable grey wares attributed to Fremont, Shoshone, and Crow ceramic traditions. In this study, we summarize the frequency and typology of Wyoming ceramic traditions and outline a protocol for further research of an understudied but potentially informative component of the regional archaeological record.