high, narrow necks. Few examples of the pottery of any people show
bolder and more successful treatment than the specimen illustrated in
Fig. 330. It is a large, full-bodied bottle, the neck and lip of which
unfortunately are lost. The restored outline can profess to be
approximate only. The surface is well polished, though gray from age.
Two masterly scrolls, formed each of a broad black line bordered by
white lines, are thrown across opposite sides of the vase. The ground
upon which they are drawn is filled in with series of lines which
accommodate themselves very gracefully to the surface of the vessel and
to the scrolls.
A number of ancient vessels, found in the hands of the Zuñi Indians,
were probably obtained by them from some of the neighboring ruins,
although in a few cases they may have been carried from distant places
in the north or west. The finer examples correspond very closely to the
ware of which multitudes of fragments are found at old Zuñi, San Antonio
Springs, Nutria, and other places in or near the province of Cibola.
They seem to be identical also in many respects with the better class of
the white ware of Tusayan. The forms are very much the same and the
ornaments exhibit similar arrangements of identical motives.
[Illustration: FIG. 332.--Vase: Province of Cibola.--1/3.]
The superb vessel illustrated in Fig. 331, is a typical example of the
work of the ancient potters of Cibola. In form it falls but little short
of perfect symmetry. The body is nearly globular, being slightly
compressed vertically. The neck is small and the lip slightly recurved.
The surface, originally white, now darkened from use, is well polished
excepting where roughened by age. In Fig. 333 we have a partial
projection of the painted design obtained by viewing the vase
vertically. This may be described as a rosette of spiral rays which
consist of gracefully meandered lines alternating with groups of plain
stripes. These are developed in the light color of the vase by painting
in a black ground. Viewed from the side the decoration is seen to
consist of the two usual zones--a narrow one about the neck, occupied by
a meander, and a broad one covering the greater part of the body,
crossed obliquely by a number of bands of ornament.
A similar vase, also from Zuñi, is illustrated in Fig. 332. It is much
darkened by use and age and has suffered considerably from wear and
tear. The ornament consists of three zones, a band of stepped figures
about the neck, a handsome meander-chain with terraced links upon the
rounded collar, and a broad belt of radiating meanders encircling the
body. A vertical view showing the two outer lines of decoration is given
in Fig. 334. A peculiar feature in this vessel is the indented
finger-hold seen in the lower part of the body, Fig. 332.
In both form and ornament these bottles exhibit decided resemblances to
wicker vessels. The introduction of stepped figures and spiral rays
sufficiently demonstrates the textile origin of the painted designs.
[Illustration: FIG. 333.--Painted design.]
[Illustration: FIG. 334.--Painted design.]
A few bottles are larger than the examples given. One having a high
narrow neck is seventeen inches high and sixteen in diameter of body.
Generally vases of this shape are below medium size, and they are very
often supplied with handles or perforated knobs, either upon the
shoulder or the neck. In a few cases only the necks are high and slender
like the bottles of the mound-builders of the middle Mississippi region.
The vessel illustrated in Fig. 335 is not properly classified either
with the preceding or with the following group, but I place it here on
account of its peculiar painted device, which appears in other forms and
connections in the two succeeding figures. The ornament as usual
occupies two zones, each of which has three groups of vertical lines
alternating with as many star-like figures resembling somewhat the
Maltese cross. The latter device may possibly have been introduced to
represent some idea, and I have no doubt that almost any member of the
modern tribes could be induced to give a full explanation of its
significance. It would, however, be his idea only and not necessarily
that of the ancient potter.
[Illustration: FIG. 335.--Vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 336.--Handled vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]
HANDLED VESSELS.--Handled vessels of this province are greatly varied.
Examples of the dippers have already been given. Besides them there is a
long series of vessels with more or less constricted necks; the handles
of which are of three or four pretty distinct varieties, including the
long vertical loop connecting the rim with the shoulder or body, the
strong horizontal loop set at the base of the neck, and the perforated
knob placed upon the shoulder. There are also a few examples of
cup-shaped projections, Fig. 351, and heads of animals, Fig. 352, which
are set upon the neck near the rim and seem to be survivals of handles
or ornaments merely.
[Illustration: FIG. 337.--Painted design.]
[Illustration: FIG. 338.--Handled mug: Province of Tusayan--1/2.]
The vessel shown in Fig. 336 has an interesting combination of
decorative features. I present it here, although a little out of place
in my classification by form, in order to point out the similarity
between its decoration and that of Fig. 335. It is a handsome mug of
hard gray ware, finished with a white slip, and decorated with painted
designs in the prevailing arrangement. Four equidistant nodes of large
size are placed about the shoulder of the vessel. These occur along the
middle of the lower zone of painted devices, the notable feature being
that the volutes of the painted scroll-work encircle the nodes and
inclose, between their interlinked points, cross-like devices,
resembling those found upon the preceding specimen. These crosses occupy
the apices of the nodes, as shown in the illustration. The painted
design is given in Fig. 337. The design proper--the interlinked
scrolls--is in white, the dark color being used as a ground to develop
it. This is true of a great majority of the examples presented. The same
device, with a slightly different combination, is seen in Fig. 338,
which illustrates a small jug from the Keam collection. The design is
well shown in Fig. 339, and in this case it will readily be seen that
the motive proper is in white, while the black hooks and the connecting
lozenge-shaped figures, forming the cross, represent the ground. This
association of the cross with the linking of the scrolls is suggestive
of a possible origin of the device as used independently in the instance
given in Fig. 335.
[Illustration: FIG. 339.--Painted design.]
[Illustration: FIG. 340.--Vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 341.--Painted design.]
I shall now present a small group of handled vessels of varying
characters upon which we have some illustrations of a peculiar treatment
of meander motives.
[Illustration: FIG. 342.--Handled cup: Province of Cibola.--1/3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 343.--Painted ornament.]
The vessel illustrated in Fig. 340 belongs to the Keam collection. The
decoration is very simple and consists of a novel combination of running
scrolls. The design is produced by filling in the space between two
separate chains of scrolls in black with fine oblique lines, Fig. 341.
Identical treatment of the meander is found upon a mug brought from
Zuñi and illustrated by Mr. Stevenson in the Second Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology. Fig. 342. This will be apparent when the
design, Fig. 343, is placed by the side of the preceding. The first is
drawn in curved black lines, the ground remaining white, the second is
in rectilinear white lines, the ground being black.
[Illustration: FIG. 344.--Painted ornament.]
Two others of like character, one angular and the other curvilinear, are
found upon small red vessels from Tusayan, Figs. 344 and 345. Still
another noteworthy example is found upon the interior surface of a red
bowl from Cibola, which, when projected in a straight line, gives the
handsome ornament illustrated in Fig. 346.
[Illustration: FIG. 345.--Painted ornament.]
[Illustration: FIG. 346.--Painted ornament.]
There is in the Keam collection a very interesting vessel, having two
heavy horizontal loops attached to opposite sides of the body. The
painted figure consists chiefly of a rectangular meander in white
bordered by black and forming a wide zone about the body of the vessel.
The spaces are filled in with fine parallel oblique lines. With the
addition of a foot this vessel would be found to resemble, in both form
and ornament, some early varieties of the Greek kylix.
[Illustration: FIG. 347.--Handled vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]
The wide-mouthed vase shown in Fig. 348 differs very decidedly in style
from the last. It is finer in texture and much more carefully finished.
The form is decidedly antique. The painted design is quite indistinct,
the color having rubbed off or faded out. The work has been neatly done
with a fine brush and exhibits some new features in point of detail. If
we trace out the figures, however, we will see that there are no new
motives, the meander forming the basis of all. There is a double line of
figures, the upper one being the more simple, as usual.
[Illustration: FIG. 348.--Vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 349.--Bottle: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]
In the bottle illustrated in Fig. 349 the usual motives have been
employed. A few heavy lines serve to give emphasis to the lip, while a
band of linked scrolls is carried around the shoulder, bordered by
simple parallel lines. Unpretentious as the work is, it has a very
pleasing effect. The shape is repeated in modern Pueblo pottery. It is
the original of the canteen, which has acquired the flattened form
through accident, or change in the habits of the people employing it. A
very superior example of these bottles is given in Fig. 350. The body is
somewhat flattened and the sides are nearly perpendicular, giving two
well defined spaces for decoration, the one above and the other about
the middle of the body. The latter space is occupied by a very slender,
meandered line in white, the interspaces being filled in with black.
Four links encircle the vessel, two oblong ones occurring upon the sides
and two short ones beneath the handles. The upper surface is decorated
with a band of scrolls, four in number, partially defined in white by
painting the space on one side black. There are two low, knob-like,
vertically perforated handles on the shoulder of the vessel.
[Illustration: FIG. 350.--Bottle: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]
[Illustration: FIG. 351.--Bottle: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]
The vessel shown in Fig. 351 is interesting on account of the peculiar
knobs or ears placed on the sides of the neck, near the lip. They rudely
resemble the corolla of a flower, but suggest as well the wheel-like
coils of hair gathered up at the sides of the head by the women of Moki.
They were probably associated with some superstition of the ancients.
The neck of the bottle is unusually high. The shape is quite graceful
and the painted decoration is simple and effective.
[Illustration: FIG. 352.--Vase: Eastern Arizona.--1/2.]
In a collection recently sent from the vicinity of Springerville,
Arizona, by E. W. Nelson, there are a number of vessels similar in
appearance to the preceding, but with shorter necks and rounder bodies.
They are small, well-finished, and in some cases quite new looking. The
designs in black are nicely executed and exhibit considerable refinement
of taste. One having a small animal head attached to the side of the
neck is illustrated in Fig. 352. A broad meandered border encircles the
neck, and a superb pattern, consisting of four ingeniously combined
horizontal chains of meanders in white covers the upper three fourths of
the body.
_Eccentric and life forms._--In the collection made by Mr. Nelson there
are several eccentric forms. One, a two-storied vessel of good
proportion, neat finish and ornamentation, is illustrated in Fig. 353.
The form is an exceptional one in the ancient ware, but is frequently
seen in modern work of the Pueblos and other tribes. It had its origin
perhaps in a double-lobed form of the gourd, or possibly the idea was
suggested by the superposition of one vessel upon another.
As previously observed, the Pueblo ware is characterized, in a general
way, by great simplicity of form. There is, however, one small group of
eccentric forms within which we find a pretty wide range of outline, a
few specimens exhibiting undoubted resemblances to life forms. Nearly
all are bottles with handles and lobed bodies, often unsymmetrical. The
handle in each case connects the lip with the shoulder or body of the
vessel. The lobes are generally three in number and are rarely of equal
dimensions, one being more or less prolonged.
[Illustration: FIG. 353.--Vase of eccentric form: Eastern
Arizona.--1/3.]
It is very difficult to say where these curious forms originated, or in
what direction they were developing. Did the archaic potter, by
exaggerating the accidental eccentricities of early and simple forms,
arrive at these grotesque shapes, did use determine their conformation,
or must we look for their originals in antecedent utensils derived from,
or made in direct imitation of, life forms?
[Illustration: FIG. 354.--Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.--1/2.]
It is manifestly useless to seek for their antecedents within the limits
of the ceramic art. A few are of such a shape as to suggest the skin
vessels so often used by primitive peoples, and their origin in this
manner would be entirely consistent with the laws of art growth. One
variety is shaped somewhat like a shoe or moccasin. Another takes the
form of a bird. In regard to their origin it would indeed be a marvel if
they should be found to represent an intermediate step between the skin
vessels of primitive peoples and the conventional pitcher of
civilization, as corresponding shapes are thought to do in Eastern
countries.
[Illustration: FIG. 355.--Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.--1/3.]
Within the Pueblo province these vessels are widely but not very
generally distributed, so far as specimens at hand show. I have already
described two examples, Figs. 255 and 256, from Saint George, Utah,
which are of the simplest type, having three nodes with no suggestion of
life form.
[Illustration: FIG. 356.--Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.--1/2.]
In Fig. 354 we have a small, well-finished cup of white ware, from
Tusayan, similar in outline to the Saint George specimens. One of the
three somewhat pointed nodes is considerably more prominent than the
others. The handle is unique, being modeled apparently after the curved
neck of a gourd, the pointed tip touching but not uniting with the body
of the vessel. This vessel is handsomely decorated with two bands of
scrolls. That upon the neck is of a usual form consisting of three sets
of linked scrolls with zigzag or stepped connecting fillets. The scrolls
of the lower bands interlock upon the three nodes and are connected by
broad Z-shaped stems also stepped or notched. This specimen is from the
Keam collection.
Another smaller vessel, still more unique in character, is illustrated
in Fig. 355. One of the nodes is very much prolonged, giving, with the
upright neck, a form rudely suggestive of a bird. The ornament, like the
last, consists of two bands. The upper is of diamond-shaped figures in
white upon a black ground, and the lower of a cleverly managed meander,
which is made to conform neatly to the eccentricities of the body. The
hooks encircle the nodes as in the preceding case.
A smaller specimen is given in Fig. 356. The node next the handle being
prolonged resembles the tail of a bird, while the other nodes, which
would occupy the place of the two prominences of the breast, are barely
suggested. The decoration is extremely simple.
[Illustration: FIG. 357.--Vase of eccentric form: Tusayan.--1/2.]
A fine specimen of these novel vessels is illustrated in Fig. 357. The
body is much prolonged on one side and has no prominence whatever at the
breast points. The handle is but slightly arched and connects the rim
with the extreme point of the projecting lobe. There is here a rather
decided suggestion of a skin or intestine vessel. It is but a step from
this form to the well-known shoe or moccasin shape of a later period of
Pueblo art, a form known in nearly all centers of ancient American
culture. The decoration is simple and unique, consisting of a meandered
figure in white upon a black ground, with parallel bordering lines in
black. It connects opposite sides of the rim passing beneath the
projecting lobe.
A number of the best examples are in the National collection. One of
these, Fig. 358, is figured by Mr. Stevenson in the Third Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology. It might be described as shoe-shaped, yet we
are forcibly reminded of the headless body of a bird, the rather square
projecting breast being a marked feature. The painted ornament consists
of broad zigzag, meandered bands filled in with fine oblique stripes.
[Illustration: FIG. 358.--Vase of eccentric form: Cibola.--1/3.]
One of the finest specimens is presented in Fig. 359. The triangular or
three-lobed form of body is still noticeable, two of the points forming
the breast, and the other, much prolonged, standing for the tail of the
bird. The meaning of the latter feature is made plain by the painted
figure. A conventional design, consisting of concentric, plain and
zigzag lines, occupies the back, and terminates behind in a row of
pinnate marks, evidently a conventional drawing of the tail. The wings
are indicated at the sides by a design like that upon the back. The
breast is embellished with a series of oblong dots probably intended for
feathers. In this case the neck, which is high and narrow, has three
prominences near the top; one at the front represents the bill of the
bird, and others at the sides are meant for eyes. A handle has connected
the head with the middle of the back. This is nearly all broken away and
the stumps have been perforated for the insertion of cords. A serrate
collar in black encircles the neck. The original of this vase was
obtained in the Pueblo country and belongs to Dr. Sheldon Jackson. A
specimen recently acquired by the National Museum is superior to this in
its decorative treatment. The body has four lobes, one for the breast,
another for the tail, and one for each of the wings. Each of these lobes
is made the center about which the volutes of the very elaborate
scroll-work are turned.
I shall give one more illustration, Fig. 360. This is taken from the
Keam collection and represents a bird. The vessel is quite distinct in
shape from those previously given, being much like the bird vessels of
the mound-builders. It is a cup with constricted rim, the head, tail,
and wings of the bird projecting horizontally from the outer margin of
the rim. It is of the white ware and has had a painted design in black
lines, now nearly obliterated.
[Illustration: FIG. 359.--Bird-shaped vase: Arizona.--1/3.]
[Illustration: FIG. 360.--Bird-shaped cup: Tusayan.--1/2.]
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Two great groups of ceramic products have now been presented--the coiled
ware and the white decorated ware. These groups belong to the first
great period of pueblo art in clay. Their chronological identity is
sometimes questioned, the coiled ware to all appearances being the more
archaic. It is simple in form and rude in finish, is without painted
ornament, and was relegated to the more ordinary uses. These and other
features give countenance to the theory of greater antiquity; but the
intimate association of the two groups in nearly every locality
indicates close identity in time. It cannot be said that the other
classes of ware found within the same province belong to different times
or to distinct races, but they are widely separated in many important
characters from the two leading groups. They exhibit greater variety of
form, less constraint in decoration, and greatly improved technique,
points tending to prove advance in culture, and, presumably, in time.
The more closely the ceramic art of the ancient peoples is studied the
more decidedly it appears that it was profoundly influenced by the
textile arts, and especially by basketry. The latter art was practiced
from remote antiquity, and within historic times the manufacture of
baskets has been the most important industry of the tribes of the
Pacific slope of temperate North America. Ceramic shapes, wherever found
within this region, coincide closely with textile outlines, and the
geometric ornamentation can be traced to textile prototypes originating
in the technical peculiarities of construction.
Another point brought out by the preceding studies follows naturally the
foregoing statement. There are in the pueblo country no primitive forms
of earthenware. This may lead to the inference that the pueblo tribes
migrated from other regions in which the earlier stages of the art had
existed, but taken in connection with the lack of individuality in the
potter's art, and its evident dependence upon the textile art, it leads
decidedly to the conclusion that art in clay was acquired by these
tribes in comparatively recent times. The ancient pueblos practised the
art of basketry, but clearly remained ignorant of the plastic art, until
by some accident of environment it was introduced or discovered. Under
the influence of the sister art, pottery at once took a high stand.
During the first stages, however, it was a servile art, reproducing the
forms and decorations of basketry. The true plastic characters of clay
remained practically undiscovered, and is only now, under the influence
of the European, dawning upon the conservative mind of the inhabitant of
the plateaus.
Besides basketry, it is probable that the early pueblos made use of
gourds and of tissue vessels, traces of their influence occurring quite
frequently, but there is no indication whatever of the presence of
carvings in shell, wood, and stone.
I do not wish in this place to dwell upon the details of pueblo
ornament. A single example will serve to illustrate the origin and
character of the leading decorative conceptions. Glancing through the
series of vases illustrated under painted ware, we find that ninety-four
out of one hundred designs are meanders, or are based upon the meander.
Beginning with the simple waved or broken line we pass up through all
grades of increasing complexity to chains of curvilinear and rectilinear
meanders in which the links are highly individualized, being composed of
a sigmoid line, terminating in reversed hooks; but in no case do we
reach a loop in the curved forms or an intersection in the angular
forms. The typical intersecting Greek fret does not therefore occur,
nor, I may add, is it found anywhere in native American art.
The constructional characters of the art in which these linear forms
developed, although they encouraged geometrical elaboration, forbade
intersections or crossings of a line upon itself, and the genius of the
decorator had never freed itself from this bondage. The forms imposed
upon decoration by the textile art are _necessarily_ geometric and
rectilinear, and their employment in other and less conventional arts,
has been too limited to destroy or even greatly modify these characters.
The study of Pueblo art embodied in the preceding pages tells the simple
story of the evolution of art--and especially of decorative art--in a
period when the expanding mind of primitive man, still held in the firm
grasp of instinctive and traditional methods--the bonds of nature--was
steadily working out its æsthetic destiny.
INDEX.
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