BASKETRY AND POTTERY
Almost every tribe the world round seems to have acquired at a very
early stage in its progress a knowledge of plaiting rushes, strips
of bark, or other simple substances, for use as beds, covering of
shelters, etc., and in this knowledge may be discovered the beginnings
of several arts of the first importance to man: basketry, weaving,
and pottery. Basketry and pottery are mother and daughter. Plaiting
together straws or rushes was a simple operation and must have occurred
to the most primitive tribes spontaneously as the need for some such
thing arose. Having produced a mat and used it for various purposes,
the turning up of the sides, or edges, for the purpose of retaining
things upon it, thereby producing a shallow basket or tray, was an
easy step, and by such stages did basketry grow to perfection.[77] The
Amerinds excelled particularly in this art, and there were few tribes
without ability to make baskets and other wicker-work, the character
and excellence of which depended to a considerable extent on the
material available.
Wicker jugs, rendered water-tight by means of pitch, were invented and
used for cookery, hot stones being introduced through the wide mouth,
to bring the contents to the required temperature, and it was the
effort to protect the basketry used in the various culinary operations
from the effects of the heat that led to coatings of mud or clay,
which being hardened by the fire, disclosed the great secret. There
is still in use among some of the more primitive tribes of America a
“boiling-basket,” that is, a wicker jug rendered waterproof, and in
which food is cooked as indicated. In Zuñi this basket was known as a
“coiled cooking basket,” and the corrugated earthen pot used to this
day is called a “coiled earthenware cooking basket.” And the Navajos
still call earthenware pots, “kle-it-tsa” or mud-basket. In these
terms is seen a clear indication of the origin of pottery among the
Amerinds in basketry. Cushing found these boiling-baskets in use a few
years ago among the Havasupai, who live an isolated life in northern
Arizona, and I saw similar jugs among the Amerinds of Utah twenty years
ago, and some more recently among the Moki, the latter, however, not
using them for boiling purposes, and perhaps not being the makers of
them. They are bottle-shaped, but with wide mouths, and provided near
their rims with a sort of cord or strap for a handle attached to two
loops or eyes. In some of the pots derived from this form these loops
are represented by little knobs of clay, or by an ornament.
[Illustration: NORTH-WEST COAST FEATHER ORNAMENTATION ON BASKETS]
[Illustration: TINNÉ WORK-BASKET]
[Illustration: MOKI WICKER WATER-JUG ]
[Illustration: HAVASUPAI CLAY-LINED ROASTING TRAY]
Cushing describes the Havasupai in Arizona as using a wicker tray lined
with clay for the purpose of roasting or parching seeds, and this
was probably used by all primitive peoples. The seeds were placed on
the clay-lined tray and agitated with live coals. Naturally the clay
is hardened by the heat of the coals, and would be sure to suggest
the making of utensils from it by means of fire. The turning up of
the edges would follow the use of the first trays made of clay, in
imitation of wicker bowls, and so would other forms of basketry be
imitated, as well as forms in horn, wood or shell. Perhaps the wicker
jugs may have been coated with clay on the outside for protection, and
eventually the heat not only baked the clay but destroyed the wicker
framework that had supported it. Thus jugs of clay may have been made
by burning away the framework every time, just as Lamb’s discoverer of
roast pig could find no other way of securing his toothsome morsel than
that of burning down the house. Or the jar may have been modelled on
the inside and then the wicker burned off. When we speak contemptuously
of primitive peoples it is well to remember that they were inventors as
well as ourselves.
[Illustration: IROQUOIS BIRCHBARK VESSEL
NORTH-WEST COAST BASKET
]
When the art of pottery was discovered basketry remained in use, for
pottery could not take its place in many uses then any more than it can
to-day. The environment and habits of a tribe controlled the amount,
the quality, the character, of both basketry and pottery. A tribe
possessing plenty of good clay would make more and better pottery than
one finding clay difficult to acquire, provided both had reached the
same degree of proficiency in this art, but mere abundance of good
clay would not necessarily make skilful potters; that is, the degree
of progress in culture of a tribe and other factors of environment
than the presence or absence of good clay in quantity had much to do
with pottery-making. For example, the Pueblos and the Navajos occupy
the same kind of a region, or rather the same region, with plenty of
clay and a similar abundance of yucca, willows, etc., for basketry,
yet the Pueblos carried pottery-making to a high degree of excellence,
while the Navajos produced only a limited amount of inferior ware. Nor
is this a matter of intelligence, for the Navajos are as intelligent
as any Amerinds living, and besides, as has been mentioned, probably
have a strong infusion of Pueblo blood. While the Navajos have gone
farther in silver- and iron-smithing, they have lagged behind in
pottery and house-building. So it is also with basketry. While the
Pueblos no longer make boiling-baskets or jugs, or at least, if they
do occasionally make them, they do not use them for cooking purposes,
yet they produce some fine trays and bowls.[78] Inclination and fancy,
as well as necessity, have much to do with the development of the
arts. Tribes might attain a wonderful development politically, like
the Iroquois, and yet possess hardly any proficiency in any art, while
others, like the Navajos, with scarcely any political development,
possess high artistic skill in weaving and metal-working, but none in
pottery. Great in war and government the Iroquois certainly were, but
they had not reached the border line of artistic development. Neither
weavers, potters, nor builders were they (though Bandelier maintains
that their long-house was as difficult of construction as any house
the Pueblos build), and, outside of the idea of the league, their
government was not much superior to that of the Pueblos. Their pottery,
limited in quantity, was very inferior to that of many other Amerinds.
It is probable that following the line of race development they would
eventually have produced excellent ware, but the iron pot made its
appearance and progress in pottery was doomed. On the North-west coast
little or no pottery is found. Quality and quantity increase as we
approach Yucatan.
[Illustration: MᶜCLOUD RIVER BASKET, CALIFORNIA]
Tribes with unfavourable environment would find it next to impossible
to acquire skill in pottery. The Eskimo, with a temperature for the
greater part of the year near or below freezing, and a scarcity
of fuel, would find moulding forms out of wet clay about the last
occupation to think of. The Eskimo, therefore, made almost nothing of
clay except occasionally a lamp.[79] The Kutchins of the Yukon country
make pots and cups of clay, but in the main the Far Northern people
rely on basketry, soapstone, and on metallic vessels obtained from the
whites. Nor is the North land entirely favourable to basketry, yet
the Aleut basket-work is exceedingly fine in texture, some of their
productions being almost a cloth. This is specially true of baskets
made on the island of Attu of the Aleutian chain. These are usually
cylindrical, sometimes fitted with a cover of the same material. So
soft and pliable are they that they can barely sustain an upright
position. This fine texture is a characteristic of all the basketry of
the North-west coast, but there is not much variety in form and the
artistic shapes so common with the Amerinds southward of the Columbia
are absent. The decorations are similar to those of other Amerinds and
are woven in with quills, grasses, feathers, bits of silk, or worsteds,
appropriately coloured. In the interior of the Northern lands, the
Kniks and others make a substitute for baskets out of thin boards
steamed and bent around a flat bottom piece which fits into a groove
in the board. It is fastened in place with split roots or skin thongs.
Among the Eskimo sealskin cups and buckets are used, and some made of
whalebone, but they also make a basket out of coiled grasses, which is
artistic and has a variety of interesting forms. East of Point Barrow
baskets are rare. Birchbark vessels of various kinds were used by many
tribes as substitutes for baskets, and doubtless some forms in pottery
were derived from these vessels as well as from baskets. Some tribes
made pottery and then, as circumstances changed, they abandoned its use
and finally forgot how to make it. Dorsey states that “pottery has not
been made by the Omaha for more than fifty years. The art of making it
has been forgotten by the tribe.”[80]
[Illustration: MOKI FOOD BASKET.]
[Illustration: KLAMATH BASKET.]
Various conditions might cause a tribe to cease making pottery, if
it were not a sedentary tribe. One constantly on the move would
either never learn to make pottery, or if, during some sedentary
period, it had acquired this art it would soon drop it, because in
primitive travel basketry and gourds are lighter and more serviceable
than the crude pottery they could produce. Thus if a tribe living a
comparatively quiet life and developing the potter’s art came into
possession of the horse, the pottery might be abandoned because it
could not readily be transported. This would apply only to tribes
making rude pottery, for where a people had attained great proficiency
in this direction they would not give it up, except, as in the case
of Taos, they could purchase nearby a sufficient supply. Proficiency
would only accompany a sedentary life, so that great skill in pottery
would be a rather sure index of the character and progress of a
people in other directions. While a people might achieve progress
without doing much in pottery, if they did excel in pottery it
would be an indication of excellence in other lines. Pottery is
well-nigh imperishable, and therefore it is often the chief record
that a departed people has left behind. Where almost every other
distinguishing vestige has completely disappeared, we may frequently
still discover scattered on the surface fragments of pottery, or buried
in the soil complete specimens, which by their form, texture, or
decorative treatment tell what manner of people these were who lived
their lives and passed away; tell the limits of their distribution,
and also to what other tribes or people they were related. Pottery
therefore, next to actual records and inscriptions, is probably the
most valuable as well as often the only kind of remains, that a race
has left.
[Illustration: MOKI FOOD TRAY.]
[Illustration: MOKI FLOOR MAT.]
[Illustration: ESKIMO WHALEBONE DISH]
[Illustration: CLALLAM BASKET, WASHINGTON.]
[Illustration: AMERIND WICKER-WORK
APACHE BASKET.
PAI UTE WATER-JUG.
MOKI FOOD TRAY.
KLAMATH BASKET.
For an excellent review of this subject, see “Basket-work of the
North American Aborigines,” by Otis T. Mason, _Report of the U.
S. National Museum, Part II of the Report of the Smithsonian
Institution for 1884_.
]
European pottery has long received close attention from archæologists,
but it is only within recent years that it has been thought worth
while to study that of the Western continent. Like the other remains
of the Amerinds, their pottery was not considered of much importance
by archæologists, and while American money and talent were being
bestowed upon the well-worked European field, our Amerind pottery was
abandoned to the curiosity hunter. The artistic qualities of the Old
World pottery fascinated the student, and this, together with a natural
deep interest in peoples closely associated with our own past, served
to obscure the real value of an investigation of the Amerind field for
the information that might be disclosed concerning the character and
distribution of Amerind tribes, for its bearing on the history of the
ceramic art in general, as well as for its story of primitive effort
and invention. Pottery is said to have been invented 2698 years +B.C.+
by the Chinese emperor Hoang-ti, but of course it was made by some
tribes long before this. Like every other art, it existed among some
tribes, while other tribes had no knowledge of it. There was never
a time, and there never will be a time, when all people possess an
equal degree of information or skill, so that when something has been
invented or discovered by one tribe or people it may have been in use
for a long period by another. At the beginning of the Columbian era,
most of the Amerinds knew how to make some kind of earthenware. Various
methods were used in various places to produce the pottery. Some was
modelled in baskets or on basket forms, right side up or up side down
as happened to be necessary, some was modelled in a hole in the ground,
or in the lap, and still other groups were produced by coiling round
and round slender ropes of clay, which were afterwards smoothed off or
not as suited the knowledge or desire of the potter. The progression
in a general way was probably about this: 1. Made on the inside of
a wicker form—confined chiefly to bowls; 2. Made on a netting in a
mould hole; 3. Coil-made; 4. Free-hand modelling; 5. Wheel-made, which
Amerinds appear never to have attained. There was doubtless no sharp
line of separation between these various processes, but they merged
into each other. The coil process was about the highest development of
the Amerind potter’s skill, and it was in use all over the continent.
As Holmes points out in his admirable paper,[81] the Pueblos are the
only people who used the coil as a means of decoration as well as
construction, so far as now known. All the other potters smoothed the
coils off so that no trace eventually was left of them, and this is
the practice of the modern Moki potters. They work by no special rule.
According to my own observation, the making of pottery is a desultory
occupation and is done by the women. Sometimes I saw a woman toiling
alone with her ropes of clay, out-of-doors, and again several women
would form a gay, laughing party in the sunlight. When the work is
dry the painting and decorating are done by means of a little, long,
string-like brush made of yucca fibre. This brush is like a piece of
coarse twine, about three inches long, without a handle, very limber,
and apparently entirely inadequate, yet they easily accomplished all
they desired to do with it. In order to turn the work while in process
of manufacture, and not injure it or destroy its shape, it is generally
built upon a wicker tray. In this way it can be readily swung round and
round, as the potter pays out the clay rope and adjusts it in place.
This is the nearest approach to the potter’s wheel that seems ever to
have been known on the American continent. While many shapes are based
on some form in basketry, or wood, or horn, or shell, or bark, a great
many are pure inventions, the result of fancy or inclination.
In preparing the clay, sand or pulverised potsherds were mixed with it
to temper it and prevent cracking. This was sometimes so coarse and
abundant in the old pottery that in the fragments picked up one can
frequently see large grains of sand.
[Illustration: MODELLING AN OLLA AT HANO
The potter was not aware of being photographed
From photo by the author, 1884
]
[Illustration: CLAY NUCLEUS]
[Illustration: METHOD OF BUILDING UP COIL]
All pottery of primitive races belongs to the class known as _soft_
pottery, as distinguished from what we call stoneware or _hard_
pottery in its different forms. The Amerinds were no exception, and all
their pottery is soft unglazed ware.[82] The reason for this lies in
the fact that the making of hard pottery requires not only an extensive
knowledge of the properties of clay, but, what is more, a temperature
for firing of about 4000° Fahrenheit,—a temperature which can be
obtained only in a furnace or retort, of which Amerinds were apparently
ignorant, their pottery being burned, in historic and prehistoric
times, in the open air. The common modern method among the Pueblos is
to burn with sheep dung, but they are said to have used in ancient
times deadwood, common wood, and coal. The method was usually the same
in all cases; the ware was piled up and then covered with the fuel in
such a manner that there would be as little as possible direct contact.
They also sometimes baked the ware in hot ashes with a fire above, and
sometimes they dug a pit which they lined with the fuel. A rich shiny
black ware was obtained in some localities by allowing the ware to
come in contact with the fuel and, at a certain period in the burning,
smothering the fire. This produced an apparent glaze as well, an effect
obtained also by rubbing and polishing before the firing. But there is
no true glazing in any Amerind ware, at least not north of Mexico. Even
had they known the process they would have been baffled in attempting
to put it in practice, for glazing requires a temperature of at least
1300° Fahrenheit, and they apparently had no means of securing it.[83]
All of their ware can be scratched with a knife, which is a test of
soft ware, and while some of it seems to have lustre, it is the lustre
of polish, not of glaze. Some ware, however, recently found in the
Central-American region appears to have a true glaze. Some tribes make
a variety of kinds of ware, while others confine themselves to some
special kind, and still others, as mentioned in the case of Taos, buy
all they use and make none. The Pueblos to-day are extensive potters,
especially the Zuñis and the Mokis, and produce large quantities of
varied ware, which, while similar in many respects to that of the
ancients of the region, is not so fine nor so well formed. At the
Chaco ruins Pepper found a number of tube-shaped vases, about four
inches diameter and a foot high, with four small perforated handles.
In the course of time enormous quantities must have been made in the
South-west, for the ground is everywhere strewn with fragments of it.
This would indicate either a dense population or a very long occupation
by a comparatively sparse one, and thus far the evidence is in favour
of the latter hypothesis. In such a dry climate as exists in the
South-west, even soft pottery is almost indestructible when not exposed
to river or ice action. In such cases it would soon be destroyed.
Though the Colorado River runs through the length of the ancient Pueblo
country, and receives many branches whose valleys, like its own, reveal
myriads of fragments, I never found a specimen in the river gravels.
If this is the case, how could we expect to find remains of pottery in
glacial drift?
Another kind of pottery has lately been found by Lumholtz at
Teuchitlan, State of Jalisco, Mexico. It is a sort of cloisonné,
apparently made by firing the plain ware and then applying a thick
slip which, when dry, was engraved with a pattern down to the baked
surface. The parts cut away were then smoothly filled in with a white
paste and with paste of other colours, producing some excellent
effects. Another firing then fixed the superimposed paste.
[Illustration: WARE FROM MOKI REGION, ARIZONA.]
[Illustration: WARE FROM MOKI REGION, ARIZONA.]
There are numerous specimens in the American Museum.
[Illustration: CUP FROM ARIZONA.]
[Illustration: VASE FROM ARKANSAS, SHOWING LINES MADE WITH A SHARP
POINT BEFORE FIRING.]
The valley of the Mississippi is as prolific in its yield of pottery
as the South-west, though most of it is found in mounds. It has
therefore been attributed to a departed and mysterious race which has
been called “Moundbuilder.” These mounds, however, were clearly the
work of different tribes and were erected for different purposes, and
there is no evidence to show that the builders were not Amerinds,
similar to tribes that were encountered by our people. True, some of
these tribes or stocks may have become extinct before whites entered
the region, for tribes rose to power, dwindled, and disappeared, but
that does not prove that they were anything but Amerinds, even though
they may have developed qualities and arts not practised by Amerinds
we have known. That there are some marked differences between some
of the so-called Moundbuilder ware and some other Amerind pottery
is freely admitted, but why this should indicate that there was any
mystery about the former is not intelligible, for there are many
differences in the products of existing tribes and stocks.[84] As has
been mentioned, the Pueblos are extremely good potters, while their
neighbours the Navajos practically are no potters at all. Had the
Pueblos become extinct before the appearance of the European, what a
fine chance this would have been to speculate on who these mysterious
and departed people were who built superior houses of stone and made
splendid pottery! Oh no, they could never have been common “Indians,”
they must have been a migration from China, or Japan! Unfortunately for
writers of the romantic school, the Pueblo is still there, and he is an
ordinary Amerind, in some ways hardly as intelligent as his neighbour
who makes no pottery and builds no houses. There is no reason, then,
for assuming that there was anything extraordinary about any of the
former occupants of the Mississippi valley. They were, at least some of
them were, skilful potters, and some had sense enough to dig out copper
and hammer it into shapes; but what is there in this that should lead
us to exalt them above other Amerinds? Progress in the arts may vary
among associated stocks, and also among different branches of the same
stock. In the Mississippi-valley pottery there was a tendency toward
upright bottle-shaped vessels with long necks, while the tendency of
the Pueblo ware is in the direction of the bowl. There are also long
tray-like vessels in the Mississippi valley, which do not occur at all
amongst the Pueblo ware, and there are more animal shapes, birds, etc.
A series of the Mississippi-valley forms suggests a knowledge of the
wheel, but it is not likely that they had it, though it is possible.
Anyone who has watched the progress of a common jug turning on one
of our potter’s wheels, must be struck by the series of fine shapes
the lump of clay passes through before assuming its last form. Such
a progression appears in the Mississippi valley ware, but these jars
were all probably made by the “coil” process, which was still in use in
the Mississippi valley after the advent of our people. Holmes states
positively: “The wheel or lathe has not been used.”[85] The pottery
of Chiriqui, a province near Panama, is remarkable for perfection of
finish and execution and a similar suggestion of mechanical aids. In
this case Holmes says: “Notwithstanding the fact that only primitive
methods were known, The high-necked Moundbuilder bottle is rarely
found in other parts of the United States, but it occurs in Mexico and
in South America. Ladles, common in Pueblo ware, are of rare occurrence
in that of the Moundbuilders, while rectangular box-like vessels are
found, which, though rare, are of wide distribution. One remarkable
object found in Tennessee is an earthenware burial casket formed of two
parts, a body and a lid, and it still bears marks of the baking. It
contains the remains of a small child, reduced to dust, except portions
of the skull and limbs; and two or three dozen small shell beads. It
weighs altogether 12¼ pounds. Another peculiar vessel was shaped like a
shallow trough, with a flat lip or projection at each end. While there
was undoubtedly in all tribes a certain progression of forms based on
those of basketry, etc., as before noted, it must not be forgotten that
there is a parallelism with wheel-made ware that cannot but strike the
student with amazement. So great is the symmetry and so graceful are
the shapes that one is led to suspect the employment of mechanical
devices of a high order.”[86]
[Illustration: BOTTLE-SHAPED VASE, ARKANSAS.]
The high-necked Moundbuilder bottle is rarely found in other parts
of the United States, but it occurs in Mexico and in South America.
Ladles, common in Pueblo ware, are of rare occurrence in that of the
Moundbuilders, while rectangular box-like vessels are found, which,
though rare, are of wide distribution. One remarkable object found
in Tennessee is an earthenware burial casket formed of two parts, a
body and a lid, and it still bears marks of the baking. It contains
the remains of a small child, reduced to dust, except portions of the
skull and limbs; and two or three dozen small shell beads. It weighs
altogether 12¼ pounds. Another peculiar vessel was shaped like a
shallow trough, with a flat lip or projection at each end. While there
was undoubtedly in all tribes a certain progression of forms based on
those of basketry, etc., as before noted, it must not be forgotten that
the Amerind, like all other human beings, did some things from pure
inspiration or invention and with no previous model of any kind.
[Illustration: EARTHEN WARE BURIAL CASKET, TENNESSEE.]
The Mississippi valley, according to Holmes, may be divided into three
districts as far as the pottery is concerned: the upper, the middle,
and the lower districts. This would seem to indicate as many different
tribes or stocks, or even different periods of occupancy by either the
same stock or by different stocks. The most northerly examples are
the rudest and most different from the others. Some of the pottery
that is advanced as showing a skill in sculpture not possessed by
Amerinds of the North can be explained in another way than by assuming
that the makers were different from other Amerinds of the Mississippi
valley as we have known them. As I pointed out elsewhere,[87] these
head-shaped vases are death-masks.[88] It does not require a second
look at the illustration below to see that the features are those of
death reproduced in a manner that no aboriginal potter could possibly
accomplish by free-hand method. “Here we look on a face perfect in its
proportions, accurately modelled, and, above all, depicting death with
a master-hand; yes, more, presenting to the spectator death itself as
it seized this personage in the long-forgotten past. Here is death
present with us as plainly as it is in the well-preserved features of
an Egyptian mummy.... Soft clay was pressed upon the dead features, and
when sufficiently dry it was removed and other soft clay thinly pressed
into the mould obtained. The mask thus made was built upon till the
jar before us was completed.... The interior of the wall follows the
exterior closely except in projecting features. The potter, finding
it difficult as well as unnecessary, to work the clay evenly into the
projections of the mould, filled them up more or less solidly.” This
vase is five inches in height and five inches wide from ear to ear.
It is open at the top, and has a perforated knob over the middle of
the forehead, perhaps for attaching a head-dress, and the ears are
perforated. These holes also would permit cords to be attached, by
which the jar could be hung, probably in a dead-house where the body of
the deceased original was laid. It has been stated that the features
exhibited in this vase are not “Indian,” but there seems to be no
ground for such a statement. The features are apparently those of an
Amerind boy fourteen or sixteen years of age.
[Illustration: DEATH-MASK VASE, TENNESSEE.]
Of the basketry of the Mississippi valley there are, of course, no
ancient specimens. Wicker-work would not last long in that climate;
but there must have been baskets and plaited implements of various
kinds, because people do not make pottery without passing through the
basketry stage. The Amerinds of that region also made good baskets when
first met with, and we know that they did some fairly good weaving both
in ancient and modern times. Some of the ancient fabrics have been
preserved in the mounds by contact with copper, by being charred, and
in other ways, and the ingenuity of Holmes has given us fac-similes of
some of the old netting.[89] He noticed curious markings on certain
fragments of pottery, and took clay casts of them, thus producing
positive from negative, and revealing the fact that the peculiar
markings were the impressions of fabrics. He believes these fabrics
were impressed on the ware for purposes of ornament, and while this may
in some instances have been the reason, in my opinion, the chief object
of the netting that made the impression was to lift the freshly made
jar out of a hole or a wicker form where it had been modelled. Very
early pottery was doubtless built on or in wicker-work—that is, early
in the practice of any particular tribe. This was specially the case
with the Amerinds of the Atlantic coast, as is plainly indicated in the
casts made by Holmes from fragments of pottery from that region. “The
earlier potters probably used baskets that came up to the curved-in
part of the jar, which was continued above the basket by deft handling,
or, if a basket of the same form was followed, the basket was destroyed
in the firing process. This would seem to the modern mind a great
waste of time and material, but it must be remembered that the Indian
potter had not learned modern haste, and besides could turn up a coarse
basket in a very short time. Therefore it does not seem improbable that
he may, in the early stages, have modelled his jar on the _inside_
of a basket frame of similar form and then allowed the basket to be
consumed in the baking process when it could not be separated from the
vessel. Even when he developed to a point beyond and modelled the upper
portions with a free hand, he would find great trouble in separating
his jar from its framework. What, therefore, would be the following
step? It seems to me it would have been the placing between the clay
and the mould of a piece of netting, which would permit him to lift
out his jar easily and intact, and transport it to the drying place.
He would then speedily discover that his basket was not necessary—was
not so serviceable, in fact, as a hole in the ground, for the sides of
the hole could be plastered with a layer of very sandy clay, and thus
would all sticking of the vessel to its mould be avoided. The netting,
or fabric, having been spread as evenly as possible over the inside
surface of the mould hole, the upper edges were allowed to lie out upon
the ground. The soft clay being now pressed evenly upon the fabric to
the required thickness, the sandy surface of the mould hole easily gave
it shape, and gave the potter no anxiety about the outside surface.
Indeed, he had but one surface to watch till he came to the in-curve,
if his vessel was to have a narrow mouth. Then, I surmise, he built
up roughly a clay mould, well sanded, pressing what was left of his
fabric into the inside of this mould as he built his vessel upward.
Frequently, doubtless, the fabric was not sufficient to go to the
top, which explains why sometimes only a part of a jar shows the cord
markings.... The distorting and overlapping of the meshes observed by
Holmes were probably due to the gathering in to fit the interior of the
mould, for it must be borne in mind that the fabric was not shaped in
any way to fit the mould, but was doubtless a fragment of some squarely
woven article. Thus gathering and overlapping were necessary to make it
conform to the inside surface of the mould....”
[Illustration: FLUTED VASE, ARKANSAS.]
[Illustration: IMPRESSION OF PARTS OF BASKET MOULD ON POTTERY]
“When coarse basketry was used for a mould that was intended to
be removed before firing, the interstices of the basket work were
probably rubbed full of a mixture of sand and clay to prevent the
finished vessel from sticking or catching, which explains, I think,
the peculiarity of design in some cases, for only the more prominent
features of the basket work would impress the vessel.... In some kinds
of basketry more filling was necessary than in others, which explains
the frequent greater separation and irregularity of the markings.”[90]
It seems, then, that the pottery of the Atlantic region was very rude
and was modelled chiefly on wicker moulds, and was not abundant[91];
that the lower Mississippi valley and the South-west were the
regions within the United States where pottery attained its highest
development; that as one proceeds northward pottery diminishes in
quantity and in quality till it disappears; and that in a southerly
direction it increases in abundance and in excellence of manufacture
and artistic design. The pottery area is fan-shaped, with Central
America for a handle. This would all appear to indicate that the
pottery wave rolled up from the Far South, and that the Moundbuilders
and the Pueblos acquired their art from that direction, or brought
it north as they came on the retreat of the cold. Attempts have been
made to connect the Pueblos with the Moundbuilders, and both with the
Aztecs, but there is no good evidence now known which substantiates
any such claim. Even if they did come from the South, it does not
make a mystery nor does it necessarily prove any direct relationship
between these branches of the Amerind race. Those nearest the great
culture centre acquired most culture, hence the farther north the less
pottery. The homogeneity of the Amerinds was due to causes operating
on this continent at a very early period, and the same causes may
explain why the Moundbuilder, the Pueblo, and the Southern stocks were
good potters, while the Algonquins, the Dakotas, the Athapascans, and
other Northern stocks were so inferior in this respect, while not being
inferior in others.[92]
[Illustration: VASE FROM CHIRIQUI. DECORATED IN BLACK, RED, AND PURPLE]
The Aztecs, Zapotecs, Mayas, and other people of the Mexican region
were expert potters; and it was in this region that working in clay,
like everything else, was carried to the highest degree of perfection
on this continent, and where evidence is found of seemingly true glaze.
Not only ordinary pottery of beautiful shapes and excellent texture
was made, but large funeral vases of elaborate form, terra-cotta
water-pipes, and terra-cotta figures, some of them of almost or
quite life size. Saville recently found some of these funeral jars
and terra-cotta figures in the Zapotec country, south of the city of
Mexico, in the province of Oaxaca, and there are specimens in the
Museum of Natural History in New York. The principal terra-cotta figure
he found is thus described by Saville[93]: “Another trench was started
at the eastern side of this mound, and after working down to the level
of the surrounding fields near the centre of the mound just back of the
tomb, there were found the scattered fragments of what will be, when
restored, the largest specimen of terra cotta ever found in America,
and I do not know of so large a specimen ever having been found
elsewhere. It represented a warrior, and the different pieces of the
figure were scattered over a space of about fifteen feet. The central
fragment was the head, upper torso, and right arm, lying face upward;
the open mouth revealed the teeth painted white and filed, as in the
case of the funeral urns. The eyes were well modelled and painted white
and red; the head was covered with a turban of feathers, somewhat
resembling the head-dress of Chac Mol, found by Dr. Le Plongeon in
Yucatan. A closely cropped beard covered the lower portion of the face,
the upper part being pitted as though marked by smallpox. The ears had
curious circular ornaments pendent by a string passed through holes
pierced in the lobes. The nose was ornamented with a long cylindrical
bead attached by a string fastened at the top and bottom through
the septum. The breast was painted red and white and additionally
ornamented with curious designs made by circular indentations. The
legs, which lay quite separated from the body, were bare, and the feet
were covered with sandals having beautiful heel-pieces. Around each
ankle was a line of bells. Both the toe- and the finger-nails were
painted white; the right arm, bent at an angle, grasped a pole or staff
of which about a foot remained. These fragments are now in the Museo
Nacional, City of Mexico. The entire length of the figure, according
to measurements made of the detached pieces, was nearly, if not quite,
six feet.”
[Illustration: AN ANCIENT FIGURE OF TERRA COTTA FROM THE VALLEY OF
MEXICO
The height of this figure is 150.9 cm. Breadth of shoulders, 46.0 cm.
From photograph by American Museum of Natural History
]
[Illustration: COIL INDENTED FOR DECORATION]
The specimen now in the New York Museum, page 113, is about five feet
in height, and while, artistically, it is crude, it exhibits great
skill in the potter’s art. The walls are thin and it must have taken
much labour to build the figure and successfully file it. It is in
three parts. There are also in the Museum several of the funeral urns
found in this locality. They are about fifteen or twenty inches high
and skilfully made. These urns were found “in series of five in front
of tombs, on the roof, or fastened into the façade.” They are usually
of grotesque design like most of the Amerind figures, and evidently
represent personages arrayed in the regalia of certain orders or
societies, or possibly the same personage in his various offices, or
attended by representations of other officers of some society to which
he belonged. Saville says of one group: “Resting directly on the cement
floor at the centre of the mound were five large funeral urns, page
115, representing seated figures, placed in a row facing west. The
urn in the centre has a remarkably well-modelled face, undoubtedly a
portrait of some ancient Zapotecan personage. The two on either side
are of the same general size and character, with the exception of the
face, which is covered with a mask in the form of a grotesque face,
possibly the conventionalised serpent, as the bifurcated tongue is
one of the most prominent characteristics.”[94] These are some of the
most important terra-cotta productions ever found on this continent.
Some terra-cotta tubing also found at this place is unique. Saville
says: “No such terra-cotta tubing has ever been discovered elsewhere
in Mexico, and a new problem is therefore presented.” One end of this
tubing was three feet below the surface in a field, while the other
was in the mound excavated. “It was laid in short sections, of varying
length, one end being smaller than the other, the small end of one
tube being fitted into the large end of the next, page 117. Several
of the joints still preserved the cement with which they were made
tight. The exploration did not reveal the use of the pipe.” The fact,
however, that the tubes were so carefully fitted into each other with,
apparently, the joinings all on the down slope, that is, connected
in such a way that water would flow continuously without waste, and
that the joints were made tight with cement, is good evidence that
these pipes were laid for conducting water. It seems probable that
this tubing was a part of some water-supply or irrigating scheme,
which had been abandoned before the mound covering a part of it was
constructed. As the valley where these interesting finds were made, as
well as neighbouring valleys, contain many more mounds, it is probable
that the future exploration of them will produce much more material
of value. If the terra-cotta tubing had a mythological significance
it will be found in other mounds, and if it belonged to an irrigating
scheme, or water-works, it will be explained by other finds. Effigy
jars were not confined to Mexico, for they are found in various parts
of the United States, especially in Tennessee, but they are nowhere
anything like those described from the Zapotec country. The Tennessee
specimens artistically and mechanically are exceedingly crude, as are
all attempts to delineate the human figure by the northerly Amerinds.
Some of the most elaborate and at the same time artistic forms in
Amerind pottery are found in Chiriqui,[95] a province just below
Costa Rica. The old occupants of this region seem to have excelled in
metal-working, stone-carving, and pottery, and probably in other arts
the products of which are of a more destructible nature. As the line of
demarkation between the North- and South-American cultures runs along
the southern side of Nicaragua, practically on the line of the proposed
Nicaragua Canal, the consideration of the Chiriqui products should
belong perhaps with the South-American division, but being above the
isthmus, they may be mentioned here for the sake of comparison. “The
casual observer,” says Holmes, “would at once arrive at the conclusion
that the wheel or moulds had been used, but it is impossible to detect
the use of any such appliances.” And further: “On the exposed surfaces
of certain groups of ware the polish is in many cases so perfect that
casual observers and inexperienced persons take it for a glaze.”[96]
There was extraordinary variety in this ware. There are whistles,
drums, rattles, round vases with necks and without necks; vases of
simple and vases of complex form; vases and jars with elaborate
handles; vases with annular bases or feet; and vases with short or
long legs, three in number generally. This field is so rich that it is
practicable to give here only a suggestion of what it affords, and the
reader is referred to the admirable paper by Holmes.[96]
[Illustration: ZAPOTECAN TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URNS FOUND ON CEMENT
FLOOR IN FRONT OF TOMB 1, MOUND 7, XOXO, OAXACA, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
From the _American Anthropologist_
]
[Illustration: POT SHOWING DIAGONAL GROOVES ACROSS THE LINES OF THE
COIL MADE BY THE HAND IN SMOOTHING UP. MANCOS CANYON, COLORADO]
[Illustration: ZAPOTECAN TERRA-COTTA TUBING FOUND LEADING DOWN INTO A
FIELD FROM THE CENTRE OF MOUND 7, XOXO, OAXACA, MEXICO
Photographed by M. H. Saville for the American Museum of Natural
History
From the _American Anthropologist_
]
[Illustration: PUEBLO POT. PATTERN PRODUCED BY OBLITERATING PINCH
MARKS.]
[Illustration: PINCH-MARKED COIL]
[Illustration: ENGRAVED WARE, ARKANSAS.]
In the matter of decoration there is found a general similarity of
methods in the different regions. Apparently the first decorations
were the unavoidable result of methods of manufacture, whether moulded
or coil-made. In the first instance the meshes of the wicker mould,
or such part of them as could not easily be covered up with a sandy
paste to prevent adhesion, impressed themselves upon the soft clay;
or the fabric that was employed to remove the work from a mould made
impressions upon the ware. If coil-made, the pinching of the clay rope
into position left marks of the finger-tips and the finger-nails with
a regularity that doubtless came to be admired and then modified to
conform to fancy, and finally finger markings and other markings and
indentations grew, especially in our South-west, into a regular system
of decoration. The irregularity due to pinching the rope in place is
less with the expert than it was with the primitive potters, and it
is now smoothed off entirely with a “rib,” the left hand being placed
opposite the pressure applied with the right.[97] In the earlier forms
the fingers of the right hand held stiffly downward seem to have been
used to even up the irregularity of the coils to some extent, as may be
discerned in figure page 116, where there are diagonal grooves across
the lines of the coil, evidently made, the left hand being inside the
jar, by drawing the fingers of the right, or rather the forefinger
braced against the others, diagonally upward upon the outer surface.
The operation would be almost identical with the modern practice except
that the fingers were used instead of a “rib.” Indentations were also
made with a sharp instrument in a pattern, and another method seems
to have been to smooth off all the pinch marks, except in certain
areas that when left would form a pattern. Thus in the latter case the
pattern was produced by a system of obliteration. In figure on page
118, a vase from the Moki country, of the ancient Pueblo manufacture,
shows this method of making a pattern by smoothing down pinch marks.
To do this the pinch marks would intentionally be made with some
regularity.
[Illustration: ENGRAVED WARE, ARKANSAS.]
[Illustration: BLACK CUP, CHIRIQUI.]
Another method of ornamentation was that of scratching or engraving
the ware after it had been fired. This is seen in figures on pages
120 and 121, from Arkansas. Still another method of ornamentation was
produced after the ware was smoothed to its finish, whether coil-made
or not, by drawing on it with a point. An example of this is seen on
page 103, also from Arkansas. The method that was most employed by the
ancient Amerinds, and is used by those of to-day, as well as by most
potters the world round, is colour. A slip or wash of fine clay was
given to the ware, and polished and decorated in colours before firing.
In this way many beautiful results were obtained in all the regions of
North America. Almost every colour was used, but white, black, red,
and yellow are most common. These pigments were laid on in a single
wash, or were applied in more or less elaborate patterns. The Pueblos,
ancient and modern, have produced an astonishing variety of designs,
and the same may be said of the Mexicans, Mayas, Zapotecs, Chiriquis,
and other stocks of the South. A large volume could barely do justice
to this subject, but enough has been given here to show the nature,
distribution, and trend of pottery making by the Amerindian Tribes.[98]
[Illustration: WOVEN MOCCASIN FROM KENTUCKY CAVE]