"About a hundred pottery shards and smaller pottery vessels were
recovered from the site at Bonasila. Pottery vessels representative of
the Bonasila culture were shaped out of the solid and show no trace of
coiling. In this respect they conform to the generalized north Asiatic
and Eskimo ware. There is, however, no check stamp decorative design
that is applied with a paddle by the Eskimo nor evidence that pottery
vessels had been built up about a basketry base. The paste is light
buff or gray in color, the buff ware being better fired and of the same
color on the inside, while the gray ware is either gray or black on
the inner surface. A well-defined unfired area covers one-half of the
sectional diameter. Both buff and gray wares show evidence of better
firing than in modern Eskimo pottery. Tempering is of coarse fragments
of steatite, which is much more durable than tempering materials such
as blood, feathers, and ashes formerly employed by the primitive Eskimo
potter.
"The pottery from Bonasila is utilitarian and consists of shallow
spherical lamps, globose bowls, and cooking pots without feet or
bases. The ware is coarse, side walls and bottom varying from 1 to 2
centimeters in sectional thickness. This type of pottery is practically
duplicated in shards recovered by Doctor Hrdlička from what is now
Eskimo territory in the Yukon Valley near the Russian Mission. It
is probable that further search would bring to light an extensive
region yielding this type of ancient pottery of distinctive design and
unrelated either to Tinné or Eskimo ware.
"Decorative attempts consist of bold incised parallel transverse
lines on the upper sector of the outer surface of the vessel. Deep
corrugations appear on the inside of the rim flare. Both corrugations
and incised line decorations were made with a paddle or wood splinter
shaped for the purpose. Some of the shards have deeply incised
punctations irregularly encircling the outer surface of the vessel just
below the rim extension.
"Shallow spherical pottery lamps accompanied surface burials at
Bonasila. These lamps have a less durable tempering material than the
other pottery fragments recovered. The paste is porous and is poorly
fired. Decorative designs incised on the interior surface of the lamps
are reminiscent of typical Eskimo punctate designs as traced on the
inner circumference of rectilinear or curvilinear etchings on ivory and
bone. It is very probable that these pottery lamps are of a later date
and are of Eskimoan handicraft.