Both types of Brainerd Ware are found together in all Minnesota sites except McKinstry Mound , and are thought to be culturally related. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that they share some similar morphological characteristics. For example, the lips are often flattened, with the lip rims either slightly curved in, straight, or slightly flared. In Brainerd Ware, the lips are usually flat to convex. Rim profiles range form slightly in-curved, to straight, to slightly flared.
Bases are often sub-concoidal to concoidal.
A variant form may be a straight, round-based bowl with a straight rim. The vessels are usually about 14 cm across at the rim and about 16 cm tall. Decoration Decorations such as stick impressions, fingernail notches, or stamps appear on the inside of some of the vessels. These embellishments appear in a very low percentage of the samples taken, however. Handbook of Minnesota Prehistoric Ceramics .