Pottery Hill
Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
Pottery Hill. National Register of Historic Places. This site (16ST48), dominated by the ancient Castain Oak (2006, Live Oak Society), has provided evidence of human activity through a sequence of aboriginal ceramics dating from the late Tchefuncte (800 BC) and early Marksville (AD 1-400) periods. Shards, bone fragments and shell deposits suggest continuous use by aboriginal people including the Acolapissa, later Choctaw, into the 20th century. Colonial settlers used the excellent clay found here to set up commercial potteries. The last pottery operated until the 1940’s.
The Story
Pottery Hill, shaded by the ancient Castain Oak, holds layered evidence of human life reaching back to the late Tchefuncte era around 800 BC and the early Marksville period of the first centuries AD. Pottery shards, bone, and shell deposits show that Native peoples — including the Acolapissa and later the Choctaw — used this ground continuously into the 20th century. Colonial settlers later prized its fine clay, running commercial potteries here until the 1940s.
Why it matters
The site spans more than two millennia of Louisiana history, joining ancient Indigenous settlement to colonial industry in one remarkable clay-rich hill.
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Themes & tags
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