Perhaps, sometimes, it was taken from the last alluvial deposits of the bay - the sediment of the floods - as it was . potter's clay of the Nile. There is another difficulty in employing classification - the nomenclature is very imperfect.
HOLMES. ] ORNAMENTATION OF BOWLS 37 7 It will probably be safe to assume that some form of shallow vessel
The shape is given gracefully by a shallow groove surrounding the depression at the base of the lip. Occasionally a tail-shaped appendage is added to the underside of these discoid heads, suggesting the chicken figures on the sacred water vessels of the Pueblo Indians.
382 ANCIENT
VESSELS IMITATING LIFE FORMS. 383
We have here a suggestion of the origin of a favorite decorative motif, the scroll, a scroll, which, however, the scanty appearance of examples makes difficult.
VESSELS IMITATING AMIMAL FORMS. 385 freedom in the production of any form that superstition or fancy hap-
The rim is decorated with a series of notches, and two small loops connect the rim to the creature's head and tail. Another remarkable example of this use of animal forms is seen in the vessel represented in fig. A deep globular bowl of dark, well-flaked ware is made to represent the head of an animal.
On the opposite side, there is a small handle-like protrusion that represents the bird's tail. The bowl is smaller and deeper than the last, and serves as the body of a bird whose head and tail are of unusual proportions. 389ducks are apparently differentiated, one of which, resembling the sum duck, is apparently differentiated, one of which, closely resembling the summer duck, is given in a, while the head is given in b, though possibly also for ' a duck meant, much like a whore or partridge is.
390 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
391 The peculiar character of this class of heads is well shown in the series of fig. The fact that in one case legs have been added to the base of the body argues against this theory. If possible, a still more novel conceit is contained in the handle of the vessel shown in fig.
It can be better compared to nothing in nature than to the antlers of an elk. The tail appears on the other side of the basin and hangs, as in nature. Legs have been added to the bottom of the bowl; these end under the body in cloven hooves.
392 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
393 Material, etc.- As a rule, pot-shaped vessels are made of thicker material, etc.- As a rule, pot-shaped vessels are made of thicker material. Many vessels resembling the forms shown here are placed with the succeeding group, as they appear to be functionally distinct from it. In some cases they are too fragile to be used, in others they are flattened at the neck of the vessel and joined to it throughout their length.
The incised lines were mostly arranged in groups of straight hues forming angular figures - a very archaic style - and groups of laid lines. A rough type of decoration is produced by sticking the soft surface clay between the nails of the fingers and thumb. The body is shapeless and rough, and is ornamented with a series of nearly vertical ridges, a fairly common device, and one which.
VALLEY
There are ten strong, well-proportioned handles, each with a handle resembling the tip of a spike near the top. There are some reds of this form that have reptilian figures attached to their necks. They are found, like all other forms, buried with the dead, placed by the head or feet, or within the hands.
The painted designs are in one, two, or three colors, and the incised figures are executed both in the soft and in the thoroughly dried clay. We note the fact that in a few of the designs there is a slight suggestion of Mexican forms.
400 ANCIENT
Large Itisa bottle decorated with four rough drawings of the human figure, executed with a sharp point in the soft clay. And it is here that 1 may be permitted to suggest that the remarkable feature of the great earth-working snake of Adams county. Very few examples have been found, two of which are illustrated in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
The knob is the head of a turtle or other powerful reptile, and the spout takes the place of the creature's tail. Many of the animal-shaped vases would closely resemble this shape if an opening were made through the top of the body and through the tail. Figures consisting of clusters of intricate lines are engraved on the sides of the vessel, as in the example just given.
HOLMES.] VESSELS IMITATING LIFE FORMS. 405 Equally noteworthy as plastic representations are the two examples
406 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
407from an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick, the base is from an eighth to a quarter of an inch thick, the pedestal about three-eighths. The illustration will give a more vivid conception of this striking head than any description can give. The features are all well modelled, and are so decidedly individual in character that the artist must have had a fairly definite conception of the face to be produced, as well as of the expression ap-.
408 ANCIENT
The diagram herewith presented (Fig. 421) gives in dotted lines the correct outline of the front, and shows projected in solid lines the engraved figures. It ends over the forehead, falls back over the back of the head, and ends in points behind, as seen in Fig. Two layers of the material are represented, one broad, the other narrow and pointed, both a little above the surface on which they are raised. rest.
410 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
Like the previous example, the face is made to give the appearance of death or sleep. Similar vessels are rarely found in other parts of the United States, but occur in Mexico and South America, Theforms are nowhere so marked. Their forms are many and often delightfully different as will be seen from the series of sketches given in Figs.
412 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
From a review of the collection, we find that there are many similar vessels actually modeled in imitation of pumpkins. The marks of the original are often shown with great fidelity in reproductions of earthenware. Wehavein Fig.433 an example of bottle-shaped vessels, the neck of which is wide and short, and the body is very compressed vertically.
The color is now quite dark, and the surface is rough with a multitude of pits, the result of the decay of the shell particles. The face is outlined below by the lower edge of the collar and above, by a shallow depression crossing the collar tangent to the base of the neck. The most expanded part of the body is encircled by an incised pattern consisting of five sets of partially intertwined scrolls - decoration.
HOLMES.] BOTTLES OF COMPOUND FORM. 417
438 also has the double body, the copied vessels having been somewhat more elaborately modeled than in the previous cases. The notched, enveloping ridge below the reptile's feet represents the rim of the lower vessel, which is a pan with a compressed globular body. I have observed other examples where two vessels, combined in this way, served as models for the potter; one, ashes in a cup, is illustrated in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology; another is given in Contributions to the Archeology of Missouri.
It is fitted with a rather tall perforated stand or foot, and the body is vertically grooved with narrow, widely spaced channels.
IIOLMKS.] BOTTLES WITH ENGRAVED DESIGNS. 419 There are many good examples of engraved geometric designs upon
The body is covered with rolls with wide red stripes, the spaces are filled with white in the form of a thick earthen paste. Illustrations of others may be seen in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology and Contributions to. The owl was the potter's favorite subject, perhaps because of the straight, compact body figure, or perhaps because of several.
The plumage is indicated by alternating bands of pale red and yellow-gray, the latter being the color of the ground. The Davenport Museum has recently acquired an excellent example, painted in red and white, which has the head and other features of a fish modeled in relief on the cheeks and bottom of the body. 448 and 449 the upper part of the neck has been modified so far as to accommodate the medallion-shaped relief of the human face, while in figures 450 and 451 the neck has been replaced by the grotesque head, the latter apparently intended for an owl.
424 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
EFFIGY BOTTLES. 425
The base color of the vase is, as usual, a medium dark gray-brown, and the painted figures are applied in thick, blackish paint. Lines partially encircle the eyes and extend across the cheek to the neck, and a line runs around the mouth and extends across the chin, neck and chest to the bottom of the body.
UPPER MISSISSIPPI PROVINCE
Similarities of material, form, methods of manufacture, and decoration tend to show that we must include the greater parts of the States of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, in the area covered by these or closely related groups of ceramics , and indications of its presence have been discovered far beyond these limits. It is not yet time to draw careful distinctions, as sufficiently detailed studies of the products of the various districts have not been made. The walls are from one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch thick, and the edge of the rim is chamfered, showing the full thickness—a strong characteristic of the northern pottery.
428 ANCIENT OF
VASES FROM THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 429
The upper part is decorated with horizontal lines of annular notches, and the body is covered with rather coarse patterns, made by rolling a notched wheel or roulette backwards in zigzag lines. The outer surface of the narrow collar is decorated with oblique lines made by a roulette, and crossed at intervals with fine incised lines. A fine little vessel obtained from Albany, Whitesides County, Illinois, is illustrated in Fig.
Around the body appear four large flat lobes, on each of which a figure somewhat resembling MaIfesca's cross has been made by incising or impressing broad, shallow lines.
GULF PROVINCE
432 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE
The body is decorated with the carved figure of a bird which is apparently intended for an eagle. The surface is coated with a thick slip or enamel of white clay, ground very fine and smooth; Over this the design was painted, not in the thick color used in the North, but in what appears to be a dark purplish-gray stain. The alternating figures with the hands suggest a highly conventionalized face, the eyes being indicated by the volutes, and the mouth audited from the lower part of the figure, as will be seen in the fully projected design, Figs.
RESUME
HOLMES.] RESUME. 435
436 ANCIENT POTTERY OF
