PAPERS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN EXPEDITION
NUMBER TWO
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
[Illustration: PLATE 1
_Courtesy Wesley Bradfield_
MARIA MARTINEZ
The most skillful potter of San Ildefonso.]
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
A STUDY AT THE VILLAGE OF SAN ILDEFONSO
BY
CARL E. GUTHE
[Illustration]
NEW HAVEN
PUBLISHED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS
BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1925
COPYRIGHTED 1925 BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE ANDOVER PRESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
RAW MATERIALS; COLLECTION AND PREPARATION 19
INGREDIENTS 19
RED CLAY 19
WHITE CLAY 21
TEMPER 21
COOKING VESSEL CLAY 22
SLIPS AND PAINTS 23
NATIVE SLIP 23
SANTO DOMINGO SLIP 23
RED SLIP 23
ORANGE-RED SLIP 24
BLACK WARE PAINT 24
BLACK OR GUACO PAINT 25
FUEL 26
MANURE 26
KINDLING 26
PARAPHERNALIA 27
PRIMARY PARAPHERNALIA 27
MOULDS 27
MOULDING SPOONS 27
SCRAPERS 27
POLISHING STONES 27
PAINT BRUSHES 28
SECONDARY PARAPHERNALIA 29
CARRYING AND STORING RECEPTACLES 29
MIXING SURFACES 29
BOARDS 29
WATER CONTAINERS 29
MOPS 30
PAINT RECEPTACLES 30
WIPING-RAGS 30
FIRING ACCESSORIES 30
MOULDING 31
BOWLS 37
OLLAS 42
COOKING-VESSELS 46
PRAYER-MEAL BOWLS 48
DOUBLE-MOUTHED VASES 49
HANDLES 50
SUN-DRYING 52
SCRAPING 54
SLIPPING AND POLISHING 57
WHITE SLIP 57
ORANGE-RED SLIP 59
RED SLIP 59
DARK-RED SLIP 62
PAINTING 66
FIRING 70
PREPARATION 70
BUILDING THE OVEN 70
BURNING 72
ACCIDENTS 76
TREATMENT AFTER BURNING 77
PAINTING OF DESIGNS 78
SYMBOLISM 85
BIBLIOGRAPHY 89
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
PAGE
1. Maria Martinez, the leading potter of San Ildefonso _Frontispiece_
2. Fragments of ancient corrugated wares 6
3. Old decorated vessels from the Pueblo villages 8
4. Old San Ildefonso vessels 8
5. Old San Ildefonso vessels 10
6. Modern polychrome ware by Maria Martinez 10
7. Modern polychrome and black-on-red wares 12
8. Modern plain and decorated polished black ware 14
9. Winnowing clay 16
10. _a_, Digging tempering material, _b_, Guaco plant 20
11. Gourd spoons 26
12. _a_, Kneading clay _b_, Primary stages of bowl moulding 32
13. Method of building vessels 32
14. _a_, Work on rim of unfinished bowl, _b_, Shaping vessel 36
15. Successive stages in the moulding of an olla 42
16. _a_, Moulding an olla, _b_, A typical potter 44
17. _a_, Finishing touches, _b_, Application of handle 46
18. Sun-drying 52
19. Scraping 54
20. _a_, Cutting down an olla _b_, Applying slip 58
21. _a_, Applying slip, _b_, _c_, Polishing 60
22. Decorating small vessels 66
23. Decorating ollas 68
24. _a_, Drying the oven site, _b_, Preparing the oven 70
25. Oven-building 72
26. Firing 72
27. _a_, Smothered fire, _b_, Wiping fired vessels 74
28. Zuñi potter preparing clay 76
29. Zuñi potter moulding a vessel 76
30. Zuñi potter finishing a vessel 76
31. Zuñi potter decorating and firing a vessel 76
32. Design by Maria Martinez 81
33. Design by Maria Martinez 82
34. Design by Maximiliana Martinez 82
35. Design by Antonita Roybal 84
FIGURES IN THE TEXT
1. Outlines of post-Basket Maker vessels 6
2. Pre-Pueblo pottery 7
3. Decorations of ancient Pueblo bowls 9
4. Bad examples of modern pottery 13
5. Paint brushes 28
6. Sections of a bowl during building 34
7. Method of terracing a prayer-meal bowl 48
8. Angles of paint brush during stroke 68
9. Growth of a polychrome design 80
10. Raincloud design 83
11. Elements of design 87
INTRODUCTION
The present paper is a careful study by Dr. Guthe of pottery making at
San Ildefonso, a typical Pueblo Indian town on the Rio Grande, north of
Santa Fe, New Mexico. The field-work was undertaken in 1921 as part of
an archaeological survey of the Southwest, that has been carried on for
a number of years by the Department of Archaeology of Phillips Academy.
From prehistoric archaeology to modern pottery making may seem a far
cry, but in the Southwest the past merges almost imperceptibly into the
present, and the Pueblos of today live in almost exactly the same way,
and practise almost exactly the same arts, as did their ancestors of a
thousand years ago. In the Southwest, therefore, the archaeologist has
the invaluable opportunity of observing, and of studying at first hand,
the life whose earlier remains he unearths from the ancient ruins. When
one considers what such a privilege would mean to the excavator in, for
example, the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, or the Neolithic
village-sites of Europe, it becomes obvious that the Southwestern
archaeologist should devote a not inconsiderable part of his time to the
study of that industrious, kindly, hospitable, and thoroughly charming
folk, the Pueblo Indians.
Living a sedentary, agricultural life in an arid country it was
inevitable that the Pueblos should early have developed into expert and
prolific potters; and so pottery, in the form of sherds scattered about
their former dwellings, and of vessels piously interred with their dead,
is the most striking, the most abundant, and the most readily accessible
form of evidence to be dealt with by the Southwestern archaeologist. The
value of pottery to the student of the past cannot be more happily
expressed than in the words of the historian Myres: “When with the soft
clay which has, so to say, no natural shape or utility at all, the human
hand, guided by imagination, but otherwise unaided, creates a new form,
gourd-like, or flask-like, or stone-bowl-like, but not itself either
gourd, or skin, or stone, then invention has begun, and an art is born
which demands on each occasion of its exercise a fresh effort of
imagination to devise, and of intellect to give effect to, a literally
new thing. It is a fortunate accident that the material in question,
once fixed in the given form by exposure to fire, is by that very
process made so brittle that its prospect of utility is short;
consequently the demand for replacement is persistent. The only group of
industries which can compare with potmaking in intellectual importance
is that of the textile fabrics; basketry and weaving. But whereas
basket-work and all forms of matting and cloth are perishable and will
burn, broken pottery is almost indestructible, just because, once
broken, it is so useless. It follows that evidence so permanent, so
copious, and so plastic, that is to say so infinitely sensitive a
register of the changes of the artist’s mood, as the potsherds on an
ancient site, is among the most valuable that we can ever have, for
tracing the dawn of culture.”
Myres wrote of arid Egypt, and in many ways conditions in the likewise
arid Southwest, where a primitive people were also building up for
themselves through agriculture a new type of civilization, closely
parallel those of the Nile Valley in predynastic times. And the
analogy, naturally enough, holds good in the matter of archaeological
methods. The rise and spread of the predynastic cultures of Egypt are
being traced out in large part by studies of ceramic types and of their
stratigraphic relation one to another. The same methods are applicable,
and indeed are now beginning to be applied, to the problems of the
Southwest.
To understand the trend of recent archaeological work in the Pueblo
field it is necessary to take a bird’s-eye view, so to speak, of the
region. Over a vast area in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and the
state of Chihuahua in Old Mexico, are found the remains of the
prehistoric Pueblos. Their villages, now in ruins, were built in all
sorts of places, on the tops of mesas, in open plains, in narrow
canyons, on the ledges of great cliffs, and in the shelter of caves.
They range in size from one-or two-room houses of the roughest
construction, to great communal buildings of five hundred or even a
thousand rooms, compactly built of excellent masonry and terraced to a
height of three, four, or five stories. The artifacts, too, found in
them vary bewilderingly, both in degree of perfection, and in type. All
Southwestern houses, however, and all Southwestern artifacts, have a
certain family resemblance that allies them to each other and makes it
evident that they are all the product of a single culture, a culture
distinct, for example, from that of Central Mexico or that of the
Mississippi Valley. To reconstruct the history of that culture, to trace
its origin, to follow its growth, and to explain how and why it
developed in the peculiar way it did, are the tasks which confront the
Southwestern archaeologist.
As in any scientific problem, the first step must be to collect and
classify the data; and although Pueblo sites are numbered in thousands,
and an overwhelming amount of merely descriptive work must still be
done, the outlines of a classification have been achieved. We know, for
example, what sort of ruins are found in the San Juan drainage of
northern New Mexico; what kinds of pottery occur along the Gila river in
southern Arizona. But what relationship, genetically and in time, there
existed between, say, Pueblo Bonito and Casa Grande, we do not know. The
time element, or in other words the historical sequence of our material,
remains in large part to be determined.
To set up an historical outline we must first determine the relative
ages of the different ruins, and then estimate the size and distribution
of the Pueblo tribes from the earliest times to the present. At the top,
so to speak, of our series the problem is simple enough--we are
acquainted with the present location of the tribes, and the various
Spanish accounts tell us where they have been living during the past
three hundred and fifty years. But for the prehistoric period (and
everything in the Southwest prior to 1540 is prehistoric) we must rely
almost wholly on such evidence as may be turned up by the
archaeologist’s shovel, for of native written records there are none,
nor can native legendary testimony be safely depended upon. This, of
course, throws a heavy burden upon the archaeologist, a burden which is
made heavier by the fact that stratigraphy of remains is so rarely found
in the Pueblo country.
Stratigraphy, in other words the superposition of the more recent upon
the more ancient, has been the Open Sesame to all the reconstructive
sciences. The very framework of geology, for example, has been built up
from stratigraphic observations. In archaeology, too, stratigraphy has
revealed the sequence of the Stone Ages; made clear the development of
the early Mediterranean cultures, and the rise of predynastic
civilization in Egypt. Therefore, as has just been said, the general
lack of stratigraphic conditions in the Southwest renders the task of
the student a particularly hard one. For some reason, not yet clearly
understood, the Pueblos ancient and modern were very prone to shift from
one dwelling place to another, and a site once abandoned was seldom
reoccupied. Although their houses were of the most permanent
construction, and their agricultural life should have tended to render
them solidly sedentary, they moved about to a surprising extent. The
result of this is that one seldom finds a ruin which was lived in for
more than a few decades or, at most, centuries; and few have so far been
discovered to contain superimposed remains illustrating any long period
of development. Where such evidence is so rare, what can be found
naturally becomes of the greatest importance; hence the recent diligent
search for, and excavation of, such sites as show signs of long
occupancy.
The choice of Pecos for investigation by Phillips Academy was due to the
above considerations. The ruin was a large one, was occupied at the time
of the Discovery and was not abandoned until 1838. A surface examination
also showed that it must have been tenanted for a long time prior to the
Conquest because its mounds were scattered over with potsherds not only
of recent date, but also of several distinct prehistoric types, each one
well enough known to students, but whose relative ages were entirely a
matter of conjecture. It was hoped, therefore, that excavation might
disclose some definite cases of superposition, and that several
prehistoric periods might thereby be arranged in their proper
chronological order.[1]
The results have been more than satisfactory. Pecos proved to have been
built on the edge of a sharp-sided mesa, a fact not suspected before
digging began, because the rubbish from the town had heaped up to such
an extent against the original cliff as completely to mask its
steepness. The first inhabitants naturally threw their refuse over the
edge of the mesa, their descendants added to the accumulation, and the
process continued down the centuries until there grew up a midden of
enormous extent and, for the Southwest, of unusually great depth. It is
stratified as neatly as a layer-cake.
When the exploratory trenches revealed the size and probable importance
of the Pecos rubbish heap, all other projects were postponed, and two
full field-seasons were devoted to the meticulous dissection of large
areas of the deepest deposit. At frequent intervals stratigraphic tests
were made, in which all the specimens from each successive stratum were
kept separate and shipped to the Museum for study. It was found that
many changes in culture had taken place during the long occupancy of
Pecos; in the stone and bone implements, in the pipes, and in burial
customs. But the most abundant, the most easily gathered, and the most
readily interpreted evidence of cultural change was offered by the
thousands of pottery fragments that filled the mound from subsoil to
surface.
We have been able to recognize about twenty distinct wares, to arrange
them into eight chronological groups, and to determine the exact
sequence of these groups. This information, derived from the
stratigraphic study of the pottery in the mounds, has been of the
greatest value. Its application has been both local and non-local. In
the excavations that we have since carried on at Pecos it has enabled us
to date relatively to each other the various kivas, cemeteries, and
small refuse mounds that occurred on the mesa top, and also to unravel
much more confidently than we would otherwise have been able to do, the
extraordinarily complex jumble of ruined, torn-down, stone-robbed,
rebuilt, abandoned, and reoccupied rooms that we encountered when we
attacked the pueblo itself. As helpful as has been the knowledge of the
sequence of the pottery types in working out the details of local
archaeology, its usefulness in that regard is small as compared with the
flood of light which has been thrown on much larger and more vital
problems. It has just been stated that some twenty types of pottery were
identified; the majority of these are not peculiar to Pecos; many of
them occur throughout large areas in the Rio Grande drainage; and so we
are now able, in most cases by a hasty examination of the surface
sherds, to assign to its proper place in the chronological series any
ruin at which our types are present. Thus mere reconnaissance (a cheap
and rapid undertaking) now serves to make clear the major outlines of
Rio Grande archaeology. But the usefulness of the stratigraphic studies
at Pecos does not end with the territory in which the Pecos types of
pottery are found, for Pecos, because of its size and because of its
situation on the main route between the Pueblo country to the West and
the buffalo ranges to the East, was an important trade centre.
From its mounds we have taken potsherds from almost all parts of the
Southwest, shells from the Pacific, spindle-whorls from Central Mexico,
as well as pottery and stone objects from the Mississippi drainage. The
importance of such finds is evident; every sherd from an outside culture
found in a datable stratum at Pecos helps to fit into our general
chronological scheme the culture from which it came; as conversely, does
every Pecos or even Rio Grande sherd that turns up beyond the limits of
the Rio Grande. Only a start has been made, but enough has already come
to light at Pecos and at such stratified sites as have been excavated by
other institutions, to provide us with a surprisingly full knowledge of
the rise and growth of the Pueblo civilization. Ten years ago it would
have been hard to believe how much could be accomplished by the
stratigraphic work carried on by Nelson in the Galisteo Basin, Hodge at
Hawikuh, Judd at Pueblo Bonito, Morris at Aztec, Guernsey in the Kayenta
country, and the writer and his associates at Pecos.
The work, as I have said, has just begun, but the prospects are bright.
Success will depend, as in any such endeavor, upon intelligent
excavation, careful collection of data, and accurate observation of
specimens, but the investigator cannot hope to derive the best results
from his labors if he does not hold to a very broad view of his field.
He must familiarize himself not only with the material of the locality
he is working in but must also know as much as possible about that of
other regions, for it is of the last importance that trade-objects be
recognized wherever they occur. Of all trade-objects, vessels and
potsherds are likely to be the commonest and most easily recognizable.
When the members of the Pecos expedition realized how vitally important
was to be a close knowledge of the pottery, not only of that particular
site, but also of the Rio Grande in general, and, indeed, of the entire
Southwest, they devoted a large part of their time, both in the field
and at the Museum, to the study of ceramics. A difficulty was at once
encountered in our ignorance of the technique of Pueblo pottery making.
We were constantly obliged to compare the paints and slips of different
wares, to decide whether observed variations were technically
fundamental, or were merely accidents of clay-mixing or firing. No full
published accounts existed, nor had any of us had the opportunity for
more than casual observation of potters at work. Dr. Guthe, accordingly,
spent the month of August, 1921, at San Ildefonso in making detailed
studies. His results are published in the hope that they may be of use
to Southwestern archaeologists and ethnologists, and also to students of
the primitive pottery of other areas who may be in need of material for
comparative purposes.
In order that the reader may envisage the long history that lies behind
the work of the modern potters, I give a summary of our present
knowledge of the origin and development of pottery in the Southwest.
To go back to the very beginning, it is not yet certain whether pottery
making was introduced into the region from Mexico, or whether it was a
local invention. There is evidence in favor of each theory. As will
presently be shown, there can be traced in the Southwest an almost
unbroken development from the earliest and crudest forms, through
intermediate stages, to the perfected styles of later times; nor can
Mexican influence be seen in the wares themselves at any period from
beginning to end. Hence it might appear that the art was of purely local
origin and growth. On the other hand, Mexico was the breeding ground for
all the higher elements of native American culture; corn-growing, the
cultivation of cotton, the use of stone masonry, the true loom, etc.,
and it is practically certain that all these traits worked into the
Southwest from Mexico. It would thus seem reasonable to suppose that the
concept of pottery came from the same source, particularly as pottery
does not appear in our area until some time after the introduction of
corn, and the mere presence of corn proves contact of one sort or
another with Mexico, where presumably pottery had been in use for a
considerable period. My present feeling is, however, that the
importation consisted of no more than the bare idea that vessels could
be made of clay, and that the subsequent development of the art was
entirely unaffected by outside influences. This question, so important
for its bearing on general problems of dissemination _versus_
independent origin of culture traits, can only be settled by work in the
archaeologically still unknown field of northern Mexico.
The earliest inhabitants of the Southwest of whom we have certain
knowledge were the Basket Makers, so called by their discoverer because
basketry rather than pottery was buried with their dead. They lived in
southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, were an agricultural or
semi-agricultural people who built no permanent houses, and who had no
true pottery. In some of the caves that they occupied, however, there
have been found a few fragments of crude, unfired clay dishes whose
thick, bungling sides bear the imprints of the fingers of their makers.
Save for occasional hesitating lines of incised marks, or straggling
daubs of black paint, these vessels are undecorated. They bear no slip,
nor, as was said above, were any of them subjected to the burning which
would have converted them into true pottery. In the course of time,
though whether that time should be counted in tens, or hundreds, or even
thousands of years, we have at present no way of telling, the Basket
Makers began to build houses of stone slabs, to group their hitherto
scattered dwellings together into small communities, and, most important
of all from the point of view of our present inquiry, to make hard,
thin-walled, thoroughly fired vessels, in other words real pottery. The
culture stage characterized by these
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Outlines of Post-Basket Maker vessels. (Courtesy
S. J. Guernsey.)]
remains and further distinguishable from the classic Basket Maker on the
basis of house structure, sandal form, and other traits, was first
identified by S. J. Guernsey, and named by him “post-Basket Maker”.
Post-Basket Maker pottery is simple in form and in decoration. It is
normally light gray in color. The vessel forms most commonly found are
bowls (fig. 1, d, e), globular vessels with restricted orifices (fig. 1,
a), and water jars, the latter often having a swollen neck (fig. 1, b).
The body of the ware in cross-section has a markedly granular
appearance, due to the large size of the bits of tempering material
included in it. A small percentage of the bowls bear a thin white slip
on the interior
[Illustration: PLATE 2
ANCIENT CORRUGATED WARES
a. Pre-Pueblo. b. Early Pueblo. c. Classic Pueblo period.]
and are ornamented with irregularly drawn designs in black paint (fig.
1, e). Many of the patterns suggest basketry prototypes.
All in all, post-Basket Maker pottery, judging from the few specimens so
far recovered, is surprisingly well made; so well as to raise the
suspicion that an earlier stage still awaits discovery. Hints of such a
stage have, indeed, been found in the form of heavy clay dishes,
tempered with shredded juniper bark, unbaked but distinctly superior in
size and workmanship to the Basket Maker product. These specimens have
turned up in post-Basket Maker sites, but in caves stratigraphically so
confused that it is still uncertain whether they antedated, or were
contemporaneous with, the more highly-perfected post-Basket Maker wares.
They are too crude, however, to be considered the direct forerunners of
post-Basket Maker pottery. If the development took place in the San
Juan, one step at least is still lacking. These questions will be
answered by further work of the sort now being carried on by Guernsey in
the Kayenta country and by Morris in the Canyon del Muerto.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Pre-Pueblo vessels.]
From post-Basket Maker times down to the present day, however, the
development of Southwestern pottery can already be outlined with
considerable confidence. The next stage is usually called the
pre-Pueblo. It is marked by further improvements in house-building, by
the introduction of cranial deformation, and by certain innovations in
ceramics. It had been the custom with the post-Basket Makers (as among
many primitive people) to build up their vessels by adding to the
growing walls successive rings of clay. When the process was complete
and the sides had reached the requisite height, all trace of the rings
was obliterated by rubbing down the surface. In the interiors of some
post-Basket Maker pieces, however, with orifices so small that a
smoothing tool could not be introduced, there were left the telltale
junction-lines between the structural rings. In pre-Pueblo times it
became the fashion purposely to leave unsmoothed the last few rings at
the necks of certain small cooking vessels (fig. 2, a; pl. 2, a). This
was the beginning of the elaborate coiled or corrugated technique, later
so widely used.
Pre-Pueblo black-on-white ware takes the form of bowls, pitchers,
ladles, small jars, and ollas. Its paste is hard, is less heavily
tempered than post-Basket Maker paste, and the surfaces of the pieces
are better smoothed. The decoration is characterized by boldness and
dash, the brushwork being correspondingly hasty. The lines are of
irregular width, nor was care exercised that the junctions of strokes
should be accurate. As is shown by the accompanying drawings (fig. 2, b,
c), the commonest elements are the stepped figure and the triangle, both
often emphasized by sets of widely spaced thin lines which follow the
outer edges of the basic patterns.
The transition between the pre-Pueblo and the Pueblo was evidently a
gradual one. There was no violent break, either in culture or in
physical type; and so it is hard to say just where the dividing line
should be drawn. The introduction of indented corrugated pottery,
however, forms a convenient milepost on the road of ceramic progress.
The change was brought about as follows: the plain, broad rings of
pre-Pueblo ware were replaced by a continuous thin fillet of clay
applied spirally; the junctions between the successive laps of the
fillet were left unobliterated, not only at the neck, but over the
entire vessel; and the fillet itself was also notched or pinched or
otherwise indented to produce various ornamental effects (pl. 2, b, c).
Thus was made the well-known coiled or corrugated cooking-ware so
characteristic of all the archaic true Pueblo ruins, a style introduced
at about the same time as the development of the above-ground
rectangular living-room, the clustered method of building, and the use
of horizontally coursed masonry, all elements that are commonly
recognized as typical of true Pueblo culture. The earliest varieties of
Pueblo pottery are imperfectly known, for little work has so far been
done in the small and often nearly obliterated mounds that mark the
house-sites of the first pueblo-dwellers. It is certain, however, that
in the San Juan and Little Colorado drainages there was a strong growth
in corrugated ware. This technique was experimented on and played with.
The variety and even virtuosity of the results are extraordinary: waved
coiling, pinched coiling, incised coiling, and all manner of indenting
were practised (pl. 2, b). The black-on-white ware evidently did not
advance so rapidly, the vessels, to judge from the sherds, were not
particularly symmetrical as to shape or notable as to finish. The
decoration ran to hachure in wavy lines and to poorly drawn spiral
figures.
As I have just said, little is known of the early Pueblo sites. The
period which they represent, however, was undoubtedly a long one. The
date of its beginning is entirely problematical, nor can we even say
with any assurance when it ended, but the probabilities are that as
early as the opening of the Christian era the Pueblos had begun to
gather together into larger settlements, to develop the closely-knit
community life, and the many-storied terraced style of architecture
which typify the golden age of their existence. Between that time and
1000 or 1100 A.D. the more or less uniform early culture split up into
distinct and often highly specialized local sub-cultures, each of which
followed its own line of growth in house-building, pottery-making, and
the minor arts. It was during this general phase of Southwestern history
that there came into being the great pueblos and cliff-dwellings that
housed entire villages: Pueblo Bonito and the other Chaco Canyon towns;
the cliffhouses of the Mesa Verde and of the Kayenta country; the
enormous adobe constructions such as Casa Grande on the Gila and Casas
Grandes in Chihuahua.
[Illustration: PLATE 3
OLD MODERN DECORATED WARE
a. Acoma. b. Zuñi. c. Sia. d. Hopi. e. San Ildefonso. f. Tesuque. g.
Santo Domingo. h. Cochiti.]
[Illustration: PLATE 4
OLD PIECES FROM SAN ILDEFONSO
a, b. Black-on-buff. c, d. Polished black.]
To describe the many different wares of the classic Pueblo period would
entail far more space than is available in this introduction. Brief
accounts of the more important styles are included in the first paper of
the present series,[2] and a handbook of Southwestern pottery will, it
is hoped, appear as a subsequent number. A single
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Black-on-white bowls of classic Pueblo period. a.
Chaco Canyon. b. Mimbres Valley. c. Upper Gila River. d. Mesa Verde.]
illustration (fig. 3) must suffice to show the bewildering variety and
the high artistic perfection which were reached at this time.
It seems ordained that periods of high achievement shall be followed by
periods of slackening and even atrophy. So it was with the Pueblos. The
years between about 1000 A.D. and the Spanish invasion of 1540 were
evidently a time of tribulation. The formerly prosperous communities of
the North and the South were abandoned, the population shrank, the arts
degenerated, and when Coranado entered the Southwest he found the
Pueblos occupying a mere fraction of their former range. What brought
about this decline is not surely known, droughts, intertribal wars,
pestilences, inbreeding, may all have been in part responsible; but its
principal cause was probably the ever-increasing attacks of nomadic
enemies. At all events Pueblo culture of the sixteenth century was not
what it had been in the past, and pottery making suffered with the other
arts. By that time the beautiful and elaborate, but difficult,
corrugated technique had been given up, and cooking vessels had become
mere unornamented pots; black-on-white ware with its handsome, intricate
geometric decoration had long been extinct, replaced by various local
styles, few of which equalled it in technical excellence or artistic
perfection. As a matter of fact the ceramic products of the historic
period are very little known. In old times pottery formed an essential
accompaniment of the dead, hence at nearly every prehistoric ruin may be
found a burial place richly stocked with mortuary vessels. With the
arrival of the priests, however, missions and Catholic cemeteries were
established, all interments took place under the supervision of the
Padres, and no more bowls or ollas went into the graves.
Pottery, of course, is short-lived, few vessels, other than reverently
guarded ceremonial jars, can be expected to escape breakage for more
than a generation or two, and so we have practically no material to
illustrate the changes which took place between the Conquest and the
present day. Much will eventually be learned in regard to seventeenth
and eighteenth century Pueblo pottery, but the work will have to be done
largely on the basis of sherds from the rubbish heaps of the older
towns, and such broken pieces as may be found under the fallen walls of
abandoned dwellings. We can, however, supplement this research by
working backwards, so to speak, from the modern wares. If we can acquire
a thorough knowledge of them it will be much easier to understand the
fragmentary material we shall have to deal with in studying the early
historic period. We should accordingly collect all possible data as to
the wares turned out in recent years at the various pottery-making
Pueblos.
The term pottery-making Pueblos is used advisedly, for, queerly enough,
no pottery is manufactured at a number of the towns. If this condition
had come about within the last decade it would be easy to account for,
as tin oil cans for holding water, enamelled pots for cooking, and china
dishes for serving food have lately been pushing native pottery out of
use. But no pottery, other than rough cooking ware, has been made for a
long time at Taos, Picuris, San Felipe, Jemez, and Sandia; while the art
is practically or wholly extinct at Laguna, Isleta, and Santa Ana.
Potters occasionally marry into these towns and continue to exercise
their craft, but they seem to have no disciples among their daughters or
among the local tribeswomen. At all the other Pueblos, however, potting
is still carried on, but in most cases with a decreasing output and a
lamentable degeneration in technique. The vessels, being mostly made to
sell to tourists or curio dealers, are carelessly fashioned, crudely
decorated, and insufficiently fired. Good contemporary pieces
[Illustration: PLATE 5
OLD MODERN SAN ILDEFONSO WARES
a, c, d. Polychrome. b, e. Black-on-red.]
[Illustration: PLATE 6
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY POLYCHROME WARE BY MARIA MARTINEZ]
are becoming rare, and the older vessels, which are naturally the best
material for study, are now almost gone from the villages. Some pieces,
however, are still left, and many more are in the hands of Mexicans and
Americans living in the Southwest. These should be got into the custody
of museums as rapidly as possible, for pottery is fragile stuff and
every year sees the breakage of many unreplacable old vessels.
Excellent work in collecting and preserving the older pieces is being
done by certain residents of Santa Fe, who have organized the
“Southwestern Pottery Fund”. In spite of limited resources they have got
together a most remarkable collection from the Eastern pueblos, and are
constantly adding to it as specimens come into the market.
A plate showing a typical example of old modern decorated ware from each
of the pottery-making pueblos is here given, in order that the reader
may appreciate the striking differences which obtain (pl. 3); San
Ildefonso vessels of this period are illustrated elsewhere (pls. 4, 5).
In closing this introduction something should be said of the older San
Ildefonso wares, and of the remarkable renaissance which has led to the
high artistic achievements of the present-day potters.
Of the pottery made at San Ildefonso during the early historic period we
have as yet no definite knowledge, but from the fact that the sherds at
the ruined pueblo of Cuyamongé, a Tewa village only a few miles from San
Ildefonso which was abandoned in 1698, are closely similar to the
seventeenth century wares of Pecos, we may conclude that the San
Ildefonso product of that time also bore resemblance to that of Pecos.
The Pecos wares in question have as yet been but briefly described.[3]
The following are the leading varieties: rough black cooking ware;
polished red; polished black; and decorated ware of two varieties,
black-on-buff, and black-and-red-on-buff. The ornamentation is in heavy
black lines, for the most part sloppily drawn, but the designs are bold,
free, and effective. Although these styles all differ to some extent
from the ceramics of late nineteenth century San Ildefonso, the artistic
and technical relationship of the two groups is evident at a glance. The
principal differences lie in the much greater amount of polished red
found at Pecos, and in the absence from Pecos of a black-on-red
decorated ware made at San Ildefonso.
What we know of nineteenth century San Ildefonso pottery is derived from
pieces found in the pueblo when collecting began about 1870; and from
vessels secured between that date and 1900. The oldest examples we have
were thus probably not made much before 1850, and the great bulk of the
specimens now in museums and in private hands were presumably turned out
during the last third of the century. This material (aside from cooking
pots, of which the older collections contain practically no examples) is
divisible into five types, two plain and three decorated. The plain
wares are polished black and polished red; the decorated are
black-on-buff, black-and-red-on-buff (usually called polychrome), and
black-on-red.
The polished black and polished red are, as Dr. Guthe brings out in
greater detail below (p. 74), merely variants of the same ware--the red
being produced by a preliminary burning in a more or less open fire--the
black by smothering the fire with pulverized manure at a late stage in
the burning. Vessels of both sorts were evidently made at San Ildefonso
during the period under discussion, the red rarely, the black fairly
commonly. It is usually supposed that the making of these wares,
particularly the polished black, was confined to the nearby town of
Santa Clara, and vessels of the latter type are ordinarily referred to
as “Santa Clara black”. This is a natural enough error as the Santa
Clara turn out nothing but the polished wares, and until the last ten
years they led all the other pueblos in the excellence of their
manufacture. The Indians of San Ildefonso, however, say that they have
always made polished black pottery, and while its production may have
partly or wholly lapsed during the 90’s and early 1900’s, there is
little doubt that many of the older specimens, such as the ones here
illustrated (pl. 4), are actually from San Ildefonso. The majority of
the examples of old black are large storage jars with full, round bodies
and relatively small orifices; there are also capacious bowl-like
vessels (called by the Mexicans _cajetes_), which were used for the
mixing of dough. The old pieces are less meticulously finished than are
those of today, but their deep, velvety black lustre is of even greater
beauty than the extremely high polish of the modern pieces.
The black-on-buff decorated ware was evidently the commonest variety of
nineteenth century pottery. It took the form of prayer-meal bowls (small
open vessels with terraced sides); medium-sized pots (pl. 3, e); and
large storage jars (pl. 4). The ware, like all San Ildefonso work, is
thick and heavy, giving a “woodeny” sound when tapped. The surface color
is a creamy buff and the decoration is in deep black pigment. The
bottoms of all the pieces, and the interiors of the necks of the jars,
are painted red. The general nature of the elaborate designs is best
brought out by the illustrations.[4]
Black-and-red-on-buff or polychrome was apparently not an abundant style
in old times. Its occurrence at Cuyamongé and at Pecos, however, seem to
indicate that it was always made at San Ildefonso. There are also in
museums and private collections pieces which appear to be as old as any
of the examples of non-polychrome. The style was seemingly limited to
bowls and small jars (pl. 5). The ware itself is the same as the
foregoing, but various areas in the decorations (which themselves seem
to differ from those of the black-on-buff) are filled in with a purplish
red paint of very characteristic shade.
The red-on-black, like the polychrome, was not common. As was said
above, it is absent from Pecos and Cuyamongé, therefore it is apparently
of fairly recent origin in the Rio Grande. Its introduction or invention
may, indeed, date from as recent a time as 1850. It differs from the
buff wares in having a dark red slip, much more highly polished than are
the buff slips. The decoration is in deep black. No large pieces, as far
as I know, were made, most specimens being small globular jars without
necks. One of these and a vase-like vessel are illustrated (pl. 5).
Such was the pottery of San Ildefonso during the second half of the
nineteenth century. Toward the end of that period, however, a marked
degeneration set in.
[Illustration: PLATE 7
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY SAN ILDEFONSO POTTERY
a, b. Black-on-red by Antonita Roybal. c. Polychrome, by Maria
Martinez--one black-on-red piece by Maximiliana Martinez.]
This was due to the substitution for native pottery of American utensils
for cooking, food-serving, and containing water; and to the growing
tendency to produce pottery for sale to curio stores and tourists rather
than for home use. The black-on-buff ware and the polished black were
given up entirely, the potters concentrating on the more showy
black-on-red and particularly on the polychrome. In the case of the
black-on-red the high gloss of the older pieces was no longer produced,
and the paint, being neither carefully mixed nor sufficiently aged (see
p. 26) developed on firing a dull, bluish cast. The polychrome also fell
off in technical perfection and in artistic excellence. The old, dull,
purplish reds were replaced by brighter colors, the designs became
flamboyant, and many ugly non-Indian vessel shapes were introduced (fig.
4). This state of affairs went from bad to worse until, in 1907, the
potter’s art at San Ildefonso was in a thoroughly bad way. A few women,
however,
[Illustration: FIG. 4. Bad examples of modern pottery--un-Indian shapes
and slipshod decoration.]
retained something of the old craftsmanship and were ready to profit by
the opportunity which was about to present itself.
In 1907 Dr. E. L. Hewett of the School of American Research began a
series of excavations in the ancient ruins of the Pajarito Plateau. The
diggers were all Tewa Indians from San Ildefonso. They proved to be
excellent shovelmen, who took a keen interest in everything they found.
They helped us identify many specimens which would otherwise have been
puzzling, and their comments on the pottery, and especially on the
designs, were most illuminating. The women of the Pueblo, when visiting
camp, often held animated discussions as to the vessels from the ruins,
and it was suggested to some who were known to be good potters, that
they attempt to revive their art, and try to emulate the excellence of
the ancient wares. While the response was not immediate, there was
observable, during the next few years, a distinct improvement in the
pottery of San Ildefonso. Realizing the importance of this, the
authorities of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American
Research threw themselves heartily into the task of stimulating the
industry. They urged the women to do better and better work, and in
particular induced them to return to the sound canons of native art.
Some old pieces remained in the pueblo, many others were in the Museum,
of still others photographs were obtained. These were all brought to the
attention of the potters.
The undertaking was not an easy one, however, for it was difficult to
get most of the women to go to the trouble of making good pieces when
the tourists, who were still the principal purchasers, were equally or
even better pleased with imitations of china water-pitchers, ill-made
raingods, and candlesticks. The problem thus resolved itself into one of
supplying a market. The Museum bought many good pieces, and Mr. Chapman,
who from the beginning had been a leading spirit in the attempt at
rehabilitating the art, himself purchased large amounts of pottery,
never refusing a creditable piece, never accepting a bad one.
Progress was slow, but eventually certain women, becoming interested in
their work, made real progress both technically and artistically. Their
products began to sell more freely and at better prices than did those
of others. Antonita Roybal, Ramona Gonzales, Maximiliana Martinez, and
Maria Martinez all turned out fine vessels, the two latter being greatly
aided by their husbands, who developed into skillful decorators. Maria
especially shone. By 1915 she had far surpassed all the others, her pots
were in great demand, and at the present time she has a ready market, at
prices which ten years ago would have seemed fantastic, for everything
she can find time to make. Her income is probably not less than
$2,000.00 a year, and following her example, many other women are now
doing fine work and are earning substantial amounts. The beneficial
effect of this on the pueblo has naturally been great. New houses have
been built, new farm machinery, better food, and warmer clothing have
been bought, and, best of all, there has been acquired a wholesome
feeling of independence and of accomplishment, the value of which cannot
be gauged in dollars and cents.
From the point of view of ceramics the development has been most
interesting. Maria began with the manufacture of polychrome ware, as
that was the style most commonly being made at the time. The shapes were
improved, the finish of the surfaces was given greater attention, and
the decorations were applied with a surer, more delicate touch (pl. 6;
pl. 7, c). Black-on-red ware was taken in hand, the oldtime polish was
restored, the vegetable paint properly prepared and aged (pl. 7, a, b).
Polished black was also reintroduced; pieces of this sort, with their
simple, graceful shapes and high black gloss sold so well that they soon
became an important product (pl. 8, b). In 1921, as Dr. Guthe records
(p. 24), Maria discovered how to apply to polished vessels dull designs
which give the appearance of being etched (pl. 8, a). This method was in
its infancy when Dr. Guthe made his study, but it has since proved so
remarkably successful that it bids fair to drive out completely the
making of plain polished ware. Late in the past autumn there appeared at
the Indian Fair in Santa Fe, some pieces of a warm pinkish color, an
entirely new departure in San Ildefonso pottery making, and one which
promises much of interest. Developments and changes in design have kept
pace with the improvements in
[Illustration: PLATE 8
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY POLISHED BLACK WARES]
technique, yet the development has been purely Indian, and the basic
processes of today are essentially the same as they were a hundred or a
thousand years ago.
A somewhat similar revival has taken place at the Hopi towns in Arizona.
In 1897 Dr. J. W. Fewkes of the Bureau of Ethnology was excavating the
ruin of Sikyatki near First Mesa. Nampeo, a woman of Hano, the wife of
one of the workmen, observed the beautiful old bowls that came from the
graves, skillfully copied their designs and then searched out beds of
clay that could be burned to the exact shades of the ancient pieces. Her
work was a direct imitation of a lost style rather than a development,
such as Maria’s, of a current one; but the effect has been no less
extraordinary. Nampeo’s bowls and ollas were so attractive that they
sold well; they were copied by other women for sale and for their own
use, and thus the potter’s art of the Hopi was not only greatly
stimulated but also radically changed.
In addition to their economic importance, the cases of San Ildefonso and
Hopi are of great interest as anthropological phenomena. The stimulus at
both places was of course partly commercial, but it could scarcely have
acted without an inherent capacity for rapid artistic and technical
progress among the Indians themselves, nor could it possibly have
brought about such great results without the inspiring example of
exceptionally gifted leaders. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that
other stimuli, as the discovery of new clays of surpassing excellence,
or of fine new pigments, may have proved equally potent in ancient
times, and that some of the striking mutations in pottery making, which
have so puzzled archaeologists, may have been originally started by such
discoveries, and been brought to fruition by the genius of prehistoric
Marias and Nampeos.
A. V. KIDDER
_Director Pecos Expedition_
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
BY CARL E. GUTHE