Never Broken Installation Shot - Impressions of Lenapehoking, Ceramics

Left to Right:

Artist Unknown, Jar, Late Woodland Period (500–1000 CE). Ceramic, 7 x 11 x 11 inches. Courtesy of the New Jersey State Museum, Charles A. Philhower Collection, 1970

Artist Unknown, Fragment of Incised Vessel, Late Woodland Period (500–1000 CE). Ceramic, 3 x 7 ¼ x 7 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the New Jersey State Museum, Abbott Farm Collection, 1936

Artist Unknown, Cooking Vessel, Late Woodland Period (500–1000 CE). Ceramic, 13 ½ x 11 ½ x 11/ ½ inches. Courtesy of the New Jersey State Museum

The intricate patterns on these ceramic vessels from present-day New Jersey were not carved arbitrarily by their makers, but instead follow similar patterns found on vessels across the Mid-Atlantic region, demonstrating that Native communities were connected via a network of trade and cultural exchange.

Several of these fragments were excavated at the Abbott Farm site near Bordentown, New Jersey. This vibrant village was located on the edge of Delaware River marshlands, which provided Native communities with an abundance of resources. During their work at Abbott Farm in the 1930s, archaeologists excavated several burial sites and removed human remains and funerary objects for further research. Through compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, many of the Lenape ancestors and objects accessioned into museum collections have been recently repatriated, or returned, to the care of federally-recognized tribes. The ceramics on view here were not used for funerary purposes.