[Illustration: FIG. 523.--Food trencher of wicker-work.]
[Illustration: FIG. 524.--Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls]
Bearing these statements in mind, the discussion of the evolution as
well as of the distribution of form, and later of the evolution of
decoration, in pottery will become easier. By lingering steps there
was early developed a method of building up vessels by a process
differing in part from the spiral. As the parching-bowl had been
evolved from the roasting-tray, so, we may infer, the food-bowl was
suggested by the hemispherical food-trencher of wicker-work. (See Fig.
523.) Yet, curiously enough, the inside of the latter seems not at
first to have been used in molding the food-bowl, as, it will be
remembered, the tray had been in forming the parching-pan. On the
contrary, the clay was coiled around and around the _outside_ of the
bottom of an inverted basket bowl (see Fig. 524), instead of being
pressed evenly into it. As with the cooking pot, so with this; as the
coiling progressed it was corrugated, not so much, however from
necessity, as from habit. In consequence of the difficulty experienced
in removing these bowl-forms from the bottoms of the baskets--which
had to be done while they were still plastic, to keep them from
cracking--they were made very shallow. Hence the specimens found among
the older ruins and graves are not only corrugated outside, but are
also very wide in proportion to their height. (See Fig. 525.) As time
went on it was found that bowls might be made deeper, and yet readily
be taken off from the basket bottoms, if slightly moistened outside
and pressed evenly all around, or, better still, scraped; for, being
plastic, this proceeding caused them to grow thinner, consequently
larger, thereby to loosen from the basket over which they had been
molded. As a result of this scraping, however, the corrugated surface
was destroyed, nor could it easily be restored. Therefore bowls when
made deep were, as a rule, smooth on the outside as well as on the
interior surface. When by a perfectly natural sequence of events--as
will be shown further on--ornamentation by painting came to be applied
first to the plain interiors of the bowls, the smooth outer surface
was found preferable to the corrugated surface, not only because it
took paint more readily, but also because the bowl, when painted
outside as well as inside, formed a far handsomer utensil for
household use than if simply decorated by the older methods. As a
consequence, we find that, while the larger vessels continued to be
corrugated and indented, the smoothed and painted bowl came into
general use. Associated later on with this secondary type of bowls
occurred the larger vessels plain at the bottoms, still corrugated at
the sides. Nor is this surprising, as the bowl, molded on the basket
bottom and there smoothed, could be afterward built up by the spiral
process. When in time the huge hemispherical canteens or water
carriers of earthen-ware replaced the basket bottles, so also the
water jar or _olla_ replaced the handled sitter or pitcher, since it
could be made larger to receive more copious supplies of water than
the strength of the frail handles on the pitchers would warrant.
[Illustration: FIG. 525.--Ancient bowl of corrugated ware.]
The water jar, like the food-bowl, is a conspicuous household article;
for which reason the Zuñi woman expends all her ability to render them
handsome. Judging by this, the desire to decorate the water-vessel
with paint, like its constant companion the food-bowl, would early
lead to the attempt to make its surface smooth. This would need to be
effected while the article was still soft; which necessity probably
led to the discovery that ajar of the corrugated or simply coiled type
may be smoothed while still plastic without danger of distortion, no
matter what its size, if supported at the bottom in a basket or other
mold so that it may be shifted or turned about without direct
handling. (See Fig. 526.)
[Illustration: FIG. 526.--Basket-bowl as base-mold for large vessels.]
[Illustration: FIG. 527.--Clay nucleus for a vessel.]
[Illustration: FIG. 528.--Clay nucleus shaped to form the base of a
vessel.]
After this discovery was made, the molding of large vessels was no
longer accomplished by the spiral method exclusively. A lump of clay,
hollowed out (see Fig. 527), was shaped how rudely so ever on the
bottom of the basket or in the hand (see Fig. 528), then placed inside
of a hemispherical basket-bowl and stroked until pressed outward to
conform with the shape, and to project a little above the edges of its
temporary mold, whence it was built up spirally (see Fig. 529) until
the desired form had been attained, after which it was smoothed by
scraping (see Fig. 530).
[Illustration: FIG. 529.--Clay nucleus in base-mold, with beginning
of spiral building.]
[Illustration: FIG. 530.--First form of vessel.]
The necks and apertures of these earliest forms of the water jar were
made very small in proportion to their other dimensions, presumably on
account of the necessity of often carrying them full of water over
steep and rough _mesa_ paths, coupled perhaps with the imitation of
other forms. To render them as light as possible they were also made
very thin. One of the consequences of all this was that when large
they could not be stroked inside, as the shoulders or uttermost upper
peripheries of the vessel could not be reached with the hand or
scraper through the small openings. The effect of the pressure exerted
in smoothing them on the outside, therefore, naturally caused the
upper parts to sink down, generating the spheroidal shape of the jar.
(see Fig. 531), one of the most beautiful types of the olla ever known
to the Pueblos. At Zuñi, wishing to have an ancient jar of this form
which I had seen, reproduced, I showed a drawing of it to a woman
expert in the manufacture of pottery. Without any instructions from me
beyond a mere statement of my wishes, she proceeded at once to
sprinkle the inside of a basket-bowl with sand, managing the clay in
a way above described and continuing the vessel-shaping upward by
spiral building. She did not at first make the shoulders low or
sloping, but rounded or arched them upward and outward (see again Fig.
529). At this I remonstrated, but she gave no heed other than to
ejaculate "_wá na ni, àná!_" which meant "just wait, will you!" When
she had finished the rim, she easily caused the shoulders to sink,
simply by stroking them--more where uneven than elsewhere--with a wet
scraper of gourd (see Fig. 532, _a_) until she had exactly reproduced
the form of the drawing. She then set the vessel aside _in_ the
basket. Within two days it shrank by drying at the rate of about one
inch in twelve, leaving the basket far too large. (See Fig. 533.) It
could hence be removed without the slightest difficulty.
[Illustration: FIG. 531.--Secondary form, in the mold.]
[Illustration: FIG. 532.--Scrapers of gourd and earthenware for
smoothing pottery.]
[Illustration: FIG. 533.--Finished form of vessel in mold, showing
amount of contraction in drying.]
The sand had prevented contact with the basket which would have caused
the clay vessel to crack as the latter was very thin. This process
exists in full force to-day with the Oraibes in the modeling of
convex-bottomed vessels, and the Zuñis thus make their large bowls and
huge drum-jars.
Upon the bottoms of many jars of these forms, I have observed the
impressions of the wicker bowls in which they had been molded--not
entirely to be removed, it seems, by the most assiduous smoothing
before burning; for, however smooth any exceptional specimen may
appear, a squeeze in plaster will still reveal traces of these
impressions.
[Illustration: FIG. 534.--Profile of olla, or modern water-jug.]
A characteristic of these older forms of the water-jar is that they
are invariably flat or round-bottomed, while more recent and all
modern types of the olla (see Fig. 534) are concave or hollowed at the
base (see Fig. 535) to facilitate balancing on the head. Outside of
this concavity and entirely surrounding it (Fig. 536, _a_) is often to
be observed an indentation (see Fig. 536, _b_) usually slight although
sometimes pronounced.
[Illustration: FIG. 535.--Base of olla.]
[Illustration: FIG. 536.--Section of olla.]
[Illustration: FIG. 537.--Annular mat of wicker, or "milkmaid's boss."]
[Illustration: FIG. 538.--Use of annular mat illustrated.]
This has no use, but there is of course a reason for its occurrence
which, if investigated, may throw light on the origin of the modern
type of the olla itself. The older or round-bottomed jars were
balanced on the head in carrying, by means of a wicker-work ring, a
kind of "milk-maid's boss." (See Fig. 537.) These annular mats are
still found among the ruins and cave-deposits, and continue in use
with the modern Pueblos for supporting convex-bottom cooking pots on
the floor as well as for facilitating the balancing of large
food-bowls on the head. (See Fig. 538.) Obviously the latter dishes
have never been hollowed as the ollas have been, because, since they
were used as eating-bowls, the food could be removed from a plain
bottom more easily than from a convex surface, which would result from
the hollowing underneath. Supposing that a water-jar chanced to be
modeled in one of the convex-bottom bread-baskets (see Fig. 539), it
would become necessary, on account of the thickness of these wicker
bowls, to remove the form from the mold before it dried. By absorption
it would dry so rapidly that it would crack, especially in contracting
against the convexity in the center of the basket-bottom. (See Fig.
539, _a_.) In order that this form might be supported in an upright
position until dry, it would naturally be placed on one of the
wicker-rings. Moreover, that the bottom might not sink down or fall
out, a wad of some soft substance would be placed within the ring.
(See Fig. 540, _a_.) As a consequence the weight of the plastic vessel
would press the still soft bottom against the central wad, (Fig. 540,
_a_) and the wicker ring (Fig. 540, _c_) sufficiently to cause the
rounding upward of the cavity (Fig. 540, _b_) first made by the
convex-bottom of the basket-mold, as well as form the encircling
indentation (Fig. 540, _c_). Thus by accident, probably, only possibly
by intention, was evolved the most useful and distinctive feature of
the modern water-jar or olla, the _concave bottom_. This, once
produced, would be held to be peculiarly convenient, dispensing with
the use of a troublesome auxiliary. Its reproduction would present
grave difficulties unless the bottom of the first vessel, thickly
coated with sand to prevent cracking, was employed as a mold, instead
of the absorbent convex-centered basket-bowl.
[Illustration: FIG. 539.--Section of incipient vessel in basket-mold.]
[Illustration: FIG. 540.--Section of vessel supported for drying.]
I infer this because, to-day, a Zuñi woman is quite at a loss how to
hollow the bottom of a water-jar if she does not possess a form or
mold made from the base of some previously broken jar of the same
type. She therefore, carefully preserves these precious bottoms of her
broken ollas, even cementing together fractured ones, when not too
badly shivered, with a mixture of pitch or mineral asphaltum and sand.
I have seen as many as a dozen or more of these molds (see Fig. 541)
in a single store room.
[Illustration: FIG. 541.--Base-mold (bottom of water-jar).]
As the practice of molding all new vessels of this class in the
bottoms of older ones was general--I might say invariable--any
peculiarities of form in the originals must have been communicated to
those ensuing; from the latter to others, and so on, though in less
and less degree, to the present time. This theory is but tentative,
yet it would also explain, on the score of association, why the Pueblo
women slightly prefer the jars showing the indentation in question to
more regular ones. With the change from elevated cliff or _mesa_
habitations to more accessible ones, the Pueblo Indians were enabled
to enlarge the apertures of their water-jars, since not only did the
concave bases of the latter make the balancing of them more secure,
but the trails over which they had to be carried from watering place
to habitation were less rugged. A natural result of this enlargement
of the openings, which admitted access with the scraper to the
interior peripheries of the thin-walled jars, was the rounding upward
of their shoulders, making them taller in proportion to their
diameters. This modification of form in the water-jar, taken in
connection with the fact that thus changed, it displaced the daily use
of the canteen, explains the totally dissimilar names which were
applied to the two types. The older, or spheroidal olla, was known as
the _k‘iáp ton ne_, from _k‘ia pu_, to place or carry water in, and
_tóm me_; while the newer _olla_ is called _k‘iá wih na k‘ia té èle_,
from _k‘iá wih na ki‘a na ki‘a_, for bringing of water: _té_,
earthen-ware, and _ë´ le_ or _ë´l lai e_, to stand or standing. The
latter term, _té è le_, is generic, being applied to nearly all _terra
cotta_ vessels which are taller than they are broad. _Té_, earthen
ware, is derived from _t’eh´_, the root also of _té ne a_, to resound,
to sound hollow; while _é le_, from _ë´l le_ or _ël´ lai ê_, to stand,
is obviously applied in significance of comparative height as well as
of function.
Thus I have thrown together a few conjectures and suggestions relative
to the origin of the Southwestern pottery and the evolution of its
principal forms.