| All sizes and shapes Northern Manitoba |
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Ceramics dating from pre-contact times have been found throughout virtually all of the province of Manitoba. Indeed, it seems that the use of ceramic containers was not necessarily linked to the lifestyles of the users. In Manitoba, horticulturalists as well as hunter-gatherer-fishers made and used pottery.
The economies of the peoples of central and northern Manitoba were based on the exploitation of a wide range of seasonally available plant and animal resources. Because of the different habitats used by these natural resources, the people had to relocate at different times of the year. In spite of the need to periodically pack up and move, ceramic containers, relatively fragile by nature, were very much part of the material culture of those groups.
Three items in this exhibit are from central and northern Manitoba. They include a large "Clearwater Lake" pot as well as a miniature pot with the very same decorations and shape. A third specimen, a plate or lamp stands as a good example of innovation. Such flat ceramic pieces are only rarely if ever found outside of northern Manitoba.
Lastly, a fourth specimen (the one with the oblong punctates just below the rim) from Lake of the Woods shows the similarities with pottery from neighbouring areas likely inhabited by linguistically and culturally related groups.
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