represent the site of an ancient pottery, where the vessels were laid
out in heaps surrounded by fuel and burned as by the modern Pueblo
potters, the broken pieces being left on the ground, forming finally a
considerable stratum. If this is correct, then the true explanation
probably is that on this spot only the one variety of pottery was made,
the painted pottery of the same locality, if such was in use, being made
by potters in other parts of the village. Unless there is an actual
superposition of the ancient painted ware upon deposits of the coiled
variety, we learn nothing of chronological importance.
The valley of the Rio Grande has furnished but few specimens of the
coiled ware, although it is known to occur along nearly its entire
course through New Mexico.
DISTRICT OF THE RIO GILA.
The broad area drained by the Gila River and its tributaries abounds in
ruins and relics, but its exploration is yet very incomplete. Coiled
pottery identical, in nearly every respect, with that of the more
northern valleys is abundant, but it is sometimes associated with
painted wares very different in style from those of the cliff-house
districts. It will probably be found that the ceramic products of the
Rio Gila and the Rio Grande are much less homogeneous than those of the
Colorado Chiquito, the San Juan, and the Rio Virgen.
IMITATION COIL-WARE.
I have already mentioned the occurrence in the Pueblo towns of modern
coiled pottery, and also that there are seen, occasionally, vessels in
which the coiled effect is rudely imitated by means of scarifying and
indenting the plastic surface. Specimens of the latter class are
generally small rude bottles with wide recurved lips and slightly
conical bases. They are very rudely made and clumsy and are but slightly
baked, and on account of the omission of proper tempering material are
extremely brittle. They are new looking, and in no case show indications
of use, and I have seen no example worthy of a place upon our museum
shelves save as illustrating the trickery of the makers. It is possible
that they are made by the Mokis, but if so by very unskilled persons who
have neither understood the methods nor employed the same materials as
the professional potters. I consider it highly probable that some clever
Navajo has thought, by imitating archaic types of ware, to outwit
collectors and turn an honest penny.
PLAIN WARE.
All the groups of pottery furnish examples of plain vessels. These are
generally rudely finished and heavy, as if intended for the more
ordinary domestic uses, such as the cooking of food and the storing of
provisions and water. The material is coarser than in the nicely
finished pieces and the surface is without the usual slip and without
polish or applied color.
The characters of these utensils are quite uniform throughout very
widely separated districts, so that it is more difficult to assign a
single vessel to its proper family than in the case of decorated wares.
We have from Saint George and other localities examples of plain vessels
that belong, without a doubt, to the coiled variety, the resemblance in
material, color, shape, and finish being quite marked.
These vessels are plentiful in the province of Tusayan, and many of
them, as indicated by their color, construction, and texture, belong to
the yellow and orange groups of ancient coiled ware. There is in many
cases an easily discernible gradation from the wholly coiled through the
partially coiled to the plain ware. In some cases the coil has been so
imperfectly smoothed down that obscure ribs encircle the vessel
indicating its direction, and in other cases fractures extend along the
junction lines, separating the vessel when broken, into its original
coils. These vessels are large and heavy, with wide mouths and full
bodies, which are occasionally somewhat compressed laterally, giving an
oval aperture.
Similar pithoi like vessels are in daily use by the Mokis and also by
the Zuñis, Acomas, Yumas, and others. They are employed in cooking the
messes for feasts and large gatherings, for dyeing wool, and for storing
various household materials. The modern work is so like the ancient that
it is difficult in many cases to distinguish the one from the other.
Besides the typical pot or cask there are many varieties of plain
vessels, some of which appear to be closely related to, or even
identical with, the classes usually finished in color. These include
bowls, pots, and bottles. I present three examples from the tumulus at
Saint George, Utah. The little bottle, shown in Fig. 255, is remarkable
in having a subtriangular shape, three nearly symmetrical nodes
occurring about the most expanded part of the body. An interesting
series of similar vessels has been obtained from Tusayan, some of which
are decidedly askoidal in shape.
[Illustration: FIG. 255.--Bottle from the tumulus at Saint
George.--1/2.]
Similar to the last in general outline is the curious vessel given in
Fig. 256. It was obtained in Southern Utah, and is now in possession of
the Salt Lake City Museum. The three nodes are very prominent and curve
upwards at the points like horns. An upright handle is attached to the
side of the neck.
[Illustration: FIG. 256.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/2.]
A large bottle-shaped vessel from the same locality is illustrated in
Fig. 257. The neck is short and widens rapidly below. The body is large
and globular, and is furnished with two small perforated ears placed at
the sides near the top. There are a number of similar examples in the
collection from this place. We have also a number of handled cups,
mostly with globular bodies and wide apertures. All are quite plain.
[Illustration: FIG. 257.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/3.]
Examples from this and other sections could be multiplied indefinitely,
but since the forms are all repeated in more highly finished pieces it
is needless to present them.
PAINTED WARE.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.--It is with a peculiar sense of delight that we
enter upon the study of a group of art products so full of new and
interesting features. Every object of antiquity has its charm for us,
but there is an especial fascination about the works of a people like
the "cliff-dwellers," whose long forgotten history takes the form of a
romance in our imaginations. In the study of these relics we have the
additional charm engendered by a contemplation of new forms of beauty,
and we follow the stages of their evolution from the initial steps to
the end with ever increasing zest.
The ceramic art of classic and oriental countries has exerted a powerful
influence upon existing culture, and is therefore much nearer the heart
of the general student than the work of the American races; but it will
not do for science to underrate the value of a study of the latter. Its
thorough examination cannot fail to furnish many illustrations of the
methods by which arts grow and races advance in culture, and,
supplemented by a study of the art of the modern peoples, it will serve
to illustrate the interesting phenomena attending the contact of widely
separated grades of art. In the introductory pages I have considered
many of the technical questions of construction and ornamentation.
Before entering upon detailed descriptions of the specimens, I desire to
give a brief review of the subject of painted decoration.
COLOR OF DESIGNS.--The colors employed are doubtless generally of a
mineral character, although carbonaceous matter derived directly from
vegetable sources may have been used to some extent. They comprised
white, black, red, and various shades of brown, and were applied to the
surfaces of the vessels by means of brushes not inferior in efficiency
to those employed by the potters of more enlightened races.
EXECUTION.--The technical skill of the artist has not generally been of
a high order, although examples are found that indicate a trained eye
and a skilled hand. The designs are painted upon the show spaces of the
vessels, which have been tinted and polished with especial reference to
their reception. Large apertured vessels, such as dishes, cups, and
bowls, are decorated chiefly upon the inner surface. The design often
occupies only a band about the rim, but not infrequently covers the
entire inner surface. High or incurved rims have in some cases received
figures upon the exterior margin.
Vessels with constricted necks have exterior decorations only. The
placing of the designs was governed, to a great extent, by the contour
of the vessel, although there was no fixed rule. The grouping of the
figures is possibly a little more irregular in the more archaic forms,
but in nearly all cases there is a tendency toward arrangement in zones
horizontally encircling the vessel. This feature is suggestive of the
use of the wheel or of the influence of wheel-made decoration; but
there is probably a pre-ceramic reason for this peculiarity, to be
sought in the decoration of antecedent vessels of more pronounced
surface or constructional characters, such as basketry. This arrangement
may also be attributed in a measure to the conformation of the vessel
decorated. It will be observed that generally the neck furnishes the
space for one zone of devices and the body that for another, while the
shoulder, where wide or particularly accentuated, suggests the
introduction of a third. In vessels of irregular form the figures take
such positions as happen to have been suggested to the decorator by the
available spaces, by the demands of superstition, or the dictates of
fancy pure and simple.
It appears that the artist never worked in a hap-hazard manner, yet
never by rule or by pattern. The conception of the intended design was
well formed in the mind, and the decoration commenced with a thorough
understanding of the requirements of the vessel under treatment and of
the effect of each added line upon the complete result. The vessels,
being for the most part free-hand products, are necessarily varied in
form and proportion, and the mobility of method in decoration is
therefore a necessary as well as a natural condition. In accommodating
the ordinary geometric figures to the variously curved and uneven
surfaces, there were no erasures and, apparently, no embarrassments.
This feature of the art shows it to be a native and spontaneous
growth--the untrammeled working out of traditional conceptions by native
gifts.
STAGES OF ORNAMENT.--In the transmission of a nation's art inheritance
from generation to generation, all the original forms of ornament
undergo changes by alterations, eliminations, or additions. At the end
of a long period we find the style of decoration so modified as to be
hardly recognizable as the work of the same people; yet rapid changes
would not occur in the uninterrupted course of evolution, for there is a
wonderful stability about the arts, institutions, and beliefs of
primitive races. Change of environment has a decided tendency to modify,
and contact with other peoples, especially if of a high grade of
culture, is liable to revolutionize the whole character of the art. The
manufactures of our modern tribes show abundant evidence of the
demoralizing effect upon native art of contact with the whites. There
are no such features in the prehistoric art.
_First stage._--In the early stages of art the elements used in
embellishment are greatly non-ideographic, and the forms of expression
are chiefly geometric. The elements or motives are limited in number and
are in a measure common to all archaic art. They embrace dots, straight
lines, and various angular and curvilinear figures, which in their
higher stages become checkers, zigzags, chevrons, complex forms of
meanders, fretted figures, and scrolls, with an infinite variety of
combination and detail. At the same time there is no confusion. The
processes by which the parts are segregated are as well regulated as are
the processes of natural growth. This phase of decoration seems to be
the prevailing one in the earlier stages of Pueblo art.
_Second stage._--A second phase or stage is marked by the free
introduction of ideographic devices of pictorial origin into decoration.
These are drawn, to a great extent, from that most prolific source of
artistic conceptions, mythology. This stage is the second in Pueblo art.
The period or stage of culture at which such elements are introduced
varies with different peoples. It is possible that ideographic and
non-ideographic devices may enter art simultaneously. This is certainly
to be expected in the ceramic art, which comes into existence rather
late in the course of progress.
_Third stage._--In strong contrast with the preceding stages is the
state of modern Pueblo decoration. Contact with the whites has led to
the introduction of life forms and varied pictorial delineations. These
conditions belong to a stage in advance of the position reached in the
natural course of growth. Ideographic, non-ideographic, and purely
pictorial characters are combined in the most heterogeneous manner in
the decoration of a single vessel. The decorator has ceased to work
under the guidance of his instincts as a rule unerring, and now, like
the mass of his more highly civilized brethren, he must grope in
darkness until culture shall come to his aid with canons of taste--the
product of intellect.
CLASSIFICATION OF WARE.--In the treatment of this great group, or rather
collection of groups, of pottery a scheme of classification is the first
thing to be considered. In glancing over the field we notice that a
whitish ware, having a certain range of material, finish, form, and
decoration, is very widely distributed, that, in fact, it is found over
nearly the entire area known to have been occupied by the Pueblo tribes.
We find, however, that within this area there are varieties of this
particular group distinguished by more or less pronounced peculiarities
of color, form, and ornament, resulting from dissimilarity of
environment rather than from differences in time, race, or method of
construction. This group is associated, in nearly every locality, with
the archaic coiled ware, and together they are especially typical of the
first great period of Pueblo art. Its makers were the builders of the
cliff dwellings, of the round towers, and of countless stone pueblos.
Distinct from the preceding, and apparently occupying an intermediate
place in time and culture between the primitive and the recent wares, we
have a number of pretty well defined groups. At least two of these are
peculiar to the ancient province of Tusayan. The vessels of one of these
groups are noticeable for their rounded symmetrical bodies, their finely
textured paste, and their delicate creamy shades of color. The designs
are well executed and display unusual refinement of taste.
Another, and probably the more important variety, is characterized,
first, by peculiarities of form, the body being doubly conical and the
bottom deeply indented; second, by richness of color, orange and yellow
tints prevailing; and, third, by the striking individuality and
remarkable execution of the painted designs.
In the valley of the Little Colorado and extending southward to the
Gila, we find remnants of a group of highly colored pottery differing
from the preceding and, in many respects, from the widely distributed
red ware of the north, specimens of which occur in connection with the
white ware. The surfaces are painted red and profusely decorated in
white, black, and red lines and figures.
Still another variety is obtained from this region. As indicated by
collections from Saint John and Springerville, it consists greatly of
bowls, the colors, forms, and decorations having decided points of
resemblance to corresponding features of the cream-colored ware of
ancient Tusayan. There are still other groups, probably of intermediary
periods, whose limits are not yet well defined, examples of which are
found in possession of the Pueblo Indians.
At Pecos the art was practiced long after the advent of the conquerors,
and later specimens show the archaic decorative ideas worked out in
Spanish glaze. The deserted pueblos of the Rio Grande furnish antique
forms that show wide distinctions from the ancient wares of the west.
Another variety peculiar to the southwest shows indications of having
been carried down to the present in the work of the Indians of the Lower
Colorado Valley. Each of these groups and such new ones as may be
discovered will be made the subject of careful study.
The remainder of this paper will be devoted to a single group--the first
mentioned in the preceding list.
WHITE WARE.
The coiled ware has already been presented in some detail. Most nearly
related to it in material, form, color, and distribution is the archaic
white ware, the pottery _par excellance_ of the "Cliff-Dwellers." It is
easily recognized, even from small fragments, whether found in the
valley of the Colorado, of the Rio Grande, or of the Gila, although each
locality has its slight peculiarities of texture, tint, shape, and
ornamentation. As a rule the material is a fine-grained clay, tempered
with fine sand, the surfaces of the vessels being coated with a thin
wash of very fine white clay. The ware is nearly always well baked and
hard, breaking with a saccharoidal, rarely with a conchoidal, fracture.
The surface is, as a rule, well polished, but often slightly undulating.
The color of the paste is generally gray within the mass and white upon
the surface. Associated with the white ware in most localities we find a
small percentage of red ware nearly identical in all save color with the
white ware.
The forms are comparatively few and simple, a full, well-rounded body,
as with the coiled ware, being a strong characteristic. The
ornamentation is generally in black paint, exceptionally in red and
white, and consists to a great extent of geometric figures, often rather
rudely drawn. Very rarely we observe an attempt to delineate a life
form--human or animal, never vegetable.
CLASSIFICATION BY FORM.--The ware of each province is conveniently
presented in form-groups, beginning with the more simple shapes and
advancing to the more complex.
BOWLS.--Bowl-shaped vessels have been in great favor with all the Pueblo
peoples, and in ancient times, especially in the north and west,
predominated very decidedly over all other forms. This is naturally a
favorite shape with primitive peoples, as it is the most simple and
probably that first developed. A long experience would be necessary for
the evolution of narrow-necked or complex forms.
Our collections contain many examples of ancient bowls, perfectly
preserved, but if this were not the case the shapes are so simple that
it would be an easy matter to make satisfactory restorations from
fragments. There is considerable diversity of outline, yet all may be
conveniently classed under two heads: the hemispherical and the
heart-shaped. The former are much more plentiful and were probably the
favorite food vessels of the people. As a rule they are plain segments
of spheres. The rims are, in rare cases, oval in outline, and a few are
elongated at the ends.
Heart-shaped bowls are characterized by a somewhat conical base and a
deeply incurved rim, sometimes much depressed about the contracted
mouth. The forms are often elegant, and the painted designs are
generally well executed and pleasing to the eye.
OLLAS.--Between bowls and pot-shaped vases or ollas there is but a
step--the addition of an upright or recurving band forming a neck. In
vessels of the latter class the body is almost universally globular,
often tapering a very little below. Occasionally there is a slight
flattening of the bottom and very rarely a concavity. The neck is seldom
high, but varies greatly in size and shape. These vessels correspond to
the water vases of the modern tribes.
BOTTLES.--Bottle-shaped vessels are very widely distributed. They differ
from the ollas in one respect only--the necks are narrower and higher.
They are rarely flattened, as are the modern Pueblo bottles known as
canteens.
HANDLED VESSELS.--Smaller vessels of nearly all shapes are at times
furnished with handles. The origin of certain forms of these has
received attention in the introductory pages. They vary in style with
the shape of the vessel to which they are attached. Bowls exhibit two
well-marked varieties--a cylindrical form and a simple loop. Those of
the former often imitate the handle-like neck of a gourd, and archaic
specimens from various parts of the Pueblo province are so literally
copied that the small curved stem of the gourd is represented. This
feature in some cases becomes a loop at the end of the handle, serving
to suspend the vessel, like the ring attached to our dipper handles.
Specimens from the headwaters of the Colorado Chiquito have the ends of
the handles modeled to represent the head of a serpents or other
creatures. A loop sometimes takes the place of the cylindrical handle,
and is attached to the side of the bowl in a vertical or a horizontal
position. It may be long or short, wide or narrow, simple or compound,
and is not always evenly curved. In certain forms of cups the
vertically-placed loop occupies the whole length of the vessel,
suggesting well-known forms of the beer-mug.
High-necked cups, vases, and bottles have rather long, vertically-placed
loops, giving a pitcher-like effect. These may consist of two or more
strands placed side by side or twisted together. Rarely an animal form
is imitated, the fore feet of the creature resting upon the rim of the
vessel and the hind feet upon the shoulder. Perforated knobs often take
the place of the loops, and unperforated nodes and projections of varied
shapes are not unusual. Some of these, placed upon the upper part of the
neck, represent the heads of animals.
A novel handle is sometimes seen in the ancient vases of Cibola and
Tusayan. While the clay was still soft a deep abrupt indentation was
made in the lower part of the vessel, sufficiently large to admit the
ends of two or three fingers, thus giving a hold that facilitated the
handling of the vessel. I have seen no looped handles arching the
aperture of the vessel, as in the modern meal baskets of the Zuñis.
ECCENTRIC AND LIFE FORMS.--The simple potter of early Pueblo times seems
barely to have reached the period of eccentric and compound forms, and
animal and grotesque shapes, so common in the pottery of the
mound-builders of the Mississippi valley, the Mexicans, and the
Peruvians, are of rather rare occurrence. The last section of this paper
is devoted to life and eccentric forms.
For convenience of treatment, the following illustrations will be
presented by districts, beginning at the northwest.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
DISTRICT OF THE RIO VIRGEN.
Under the head of coiled pottery I have given a detailed description of
the remarkable dwelling-site tumulus at Saint George, Utah, which has
furnished such a complete set of the fictile works of the cliff-house
potter, the first collection of importance known to have been made by
exhumation. I will now present the painted ware and point out its very
interesting local peculiarities. All the ordinary shapes are present
excepting the olla. Vessels of this form are all of the plain or coiled
varieties. The paste is gray and the surface color is usually a light
gray. A small percentage of the vessels are painted or stained red. The
designs are all executed in black, and are for the most part nicely
drawn. They differ slightly in a number of ways from those of other
districts, their relationships being, with a few exceptions, more
intimate with the ware of the Rio San Juan. A characteristic of this
pottery is the thinness of the walls and the hardness and tenacity of
the paste. In form a striking feature is the occurrence of bowls of oval
form, and in one case such a bowl has sides cut down or scalloped and
ends prolonged. The oval form is sometimes seen in other districts, and
the elongation of portions of the rim is a feature especially
characteristic of the Pima and Mojave work of to-day.