They carried home inside the next pot

Analysis of 58 Tampa Bay pottery fragments found that decorated vessels were made from local clay but used coiling, grog temper and other techniques associated with Mississippian potters about 200 miles north. Mica and multigenerational grog — old pottery containing still older pottery — support migration by skilled artisans rather than trade in finished vessels. A guarded craft community is the leading interpretation, not a directly documented guild.