RED WARE

Red ware

is essentially a subtype of the local

Brown

ware, con- sisting of the

same

paste,

and

including

many

of the vessel

forms

of the latter.

In

fact,

commonly

the red paint is applied overa

brown

wash.

Red ware

is coated all over (exceptin the case of bowls, in which, as in

Brown

ware, the bases are frequently left unslipped) with a bright red pigment, apparently micaceous hematite. Often, particu- larly in specimens

from

the earlier levels, the

pigment

is not well fired on, or has deteriorated in the course of time; that of the

more

recent epochs is harder

and

glossier.

There

is little variation in color in well-preserved specimens.

The

^{paste is the}

same

^as that of

Brown

ware.

The

range of shapes appears not as great as that of

Brown

ware, chieflybecause

we

have a smaller sampling of completevessels.

Red ware was

never very

common.

It seems probable that,

had we

a larger quantity of complete specimens,

we would

^find duplicates of

most

ifnot allthe

Brown ware

forms.

Red ware

is never

found

with

any

painted decoration other than

its bright-hued slip. Incised decoration is rare, consisting,

when

it

does occur, of small post-firing geometric designs.

38 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

[Bull. 141

RED-ON-BROWN

WARE

This

ware

occursin three subclasses,

two

of which, distinguishable at first glance in dealingwith whole vessels or even large fragments, are practically impossible to segregate in sorting the run of small sherds

from

ourtrenches.

First of all, it is to be noted that both paste

and

slip of all three subgroups are identical to those of

normal Brown

ware. There seems to be a tendency

toward

the dark-olive tones of ^slip, but the complete range of colors of

Brown

ware,

from

bright orange

brown

to nearly black occurs.

On

this slip the red paint is applied.

The

three subdivisions

depend

on

mode

of application of the red pigment. In one, the

most common,

it is appliedinbroad horizontal bands, for example about rim

and

base, or about the middle of the vessel. In the second, it is applied in broad-line patterns (figs. 135, 136, 137). These seem to be for the

most

part simple combinations of stripes or zigzags.

Large

dots are occasionally noted.

There

are

no

suggestions of elaborate or representative designs.

The

third sub- class is the

same

as the second, with the addition of post-firing incisedlinesborderingthe redstripes (fig.138)

.

NEGATIVE PAINTED

WARE

A

ceramic

group

of considerable interest despite its rarity at the siteis that with "negative" designs. Nearly all the examplesof this ware, if so it

may

be called, properly belong to the

Brown

or

Red ware

groups, being identical in paste

and

slips, and, wherever deter- minable, in vessel

form

as well. Frequently the design elements are

formed

of the underlying

brown

slip, with the surrounding areas in red. Less frequently the elements are of a red (ground) colorwith surroundingareas in athin blackpaint.

One

loneexample occurs of a

White ware

sherd (White-slipped) to

which

black paint has been applied.

There

are too

few

_specimens ofNegative Painted

ware

to general- ize about the designs.

The

best preserved are represented in the

accompanying

figures 139

and

140.

Most

seem to be rather simple combinations of lines

and

dots of varying sizes. There are a

few

fragments,however,of

more

elaboratepatterns.

BLACK

WARE

Black

ware

forms one of the important ceramic types of Cerro de lasMesas,althoughneveras

abundant

as

Brown

ware.

The

slip ofBlack ware appears to be of the

same

clayas the paste.

Itis usually moderatelywell polished,butrarelyattainsahigh gloss.

Dkdcker] CE'RiAMlLC

STRATIGRAPHY, CERRO DE

LAS

MESAS 39

Off-color examples are not

wanting—

pieces that are neither quite blacknorquite light

enough

for

Brown

^ware.

The

paste used isblack in color, with a fairly

heavy

sand temper.

Occasionally small bands or.areas

show

brownish tones instead of black.

Many

of the vessel forms noted ⁱⁿ

Brown ware

recur in this ceramicgroup.

Decoration.

— The

decoration of Black

ware

is restricted to various types of incising. Painted designs

do

not occur, unless the red or whitepaint rubbed ^into incisedpatterns be classed as such.

Nor

are there examples of

modeled ornament

in the collections. Pre-firing incising is less frequent than that done after the baking process.

There

seems tobe a greaterproportion of curvilinear, possibly repre-

FiGURE^100.

—

Incised design,Blackware. Complexgeometricdesign.

sentative, designs in this technique.

Worth

special mention is the broad-line "scraped" decoration of ^a small

number

of pieces (pi. 19,

«,e,

and

figs.115-120).

The

patternsseem tohave been applied after drying but before firing,

though

the practice of rubbing paint into the scraped areas often

makes

it difficultto be sureat

what

stage the decorating

was

done. Post-firing designs are nearly exclusively geometric.

Hatched

^triangles, often flanking parallel lines, appear asoneofthemostfrequentmotifs (figs. 82-114).

As

mentioned, both red paint

and

white occur as fillerto

make

the incised designs stand out

more

sharply.

The

white

pigment

is

much

the rarer of the two.