Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Part 25

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 313--Triangular terrace]

One of the most common designs on ancient pottery is the stepped figure, a rectangular ornamentation, modifications of which are shown in figures 312-314. This is a very common design on the interior of food vessels, where it is commonly interpreted as a rain-cloud symbol.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 314--Crook, serrate end]

Of all patterns on ancient Tusayan ware, that of the terrace figures most closely resemble the geometrical ornamentation of cliff-house pottery, and there seems every reason to suppose that this form of design admits of a like interpretation. The evolution of this pattern from plaited basketry has been ably discussed by Holmes and Nordenskiold, whose works have already been quoted in this memoir.

The terraced forms from the exterior of food bowls here considered are highly aberrent; they may be forms of survivals, motives of decoration which have persisted from very early times. Whatever the origin of the stepped figure in Pueblo art was, it is well to remember, as shown by Holmes, that it is "impossible to show that any particular design of the highly const.i.tuted kind was desired through a certain identifiable series of progressive steps."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 315--Key pattern; rectangle and triangles]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 316--Rectangle and crook]

For some unknown reason the majority of the simple designs on the exterior of food bowls from Tusayan are rectangular, triangular, or linear in their character. Many can be reduced to simple or multiple lines. Others were suggested by plaited ware.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 317--Crook and tail feathers]

In figure 312 is found one of the simplest of rectangular designs, a simple band, key pattern in form, at one end, with a reentrant square depression at the opposite extremity. In figure 313 is an equally simple terrace pattern with stepped figures at the ends and in the middle. These forms are common decorative elements on the exterior of jars and vases, where they occur in many combinations, all of which are reducible to these types. The simplest form of the key pattern is shown in figure 314, and in figure 315 there is a second modification of the same design a little more complicated. This becomes somewhat changed in figure 316, not only by the modifications of the two extremities, but also by the addition of a median geometric figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 318--Rectangle, triangle, and serrate spurs]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 319--W-pattern; terminal crooks]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 320--W-pattern; terminal rectangles]

The design in figure 317 is rectangular, showing a key pattern at one end, with two long feathers at the opposite extremity. The five bodies on the same end of the figure are unique and comparable with conventionalized star emblems. The series of designs in the upper left-hand end of this figure are unlike any which have yet been found on the exterior of food bowls, but are similar to designs which have elsewhere been interpreted as feathers. On the hypothesis that these two parts of the figure are tail-feathers, we find in the crook the a.n.a.logue of the head of a bird. Thus the designs on the equator of the vase (plate CXLV, _a_), which are birds, have the same crook for the head, and two simple tail-feathers, rudely drawn but comparable with the two in figure 317. The five dentate bodies on the lower left-hand end of the figure also tell in favor of the avian character of the design, for the following reason: These bodies are often found accompanying figures of conventionalized birds (plates CXLIV, CLIV, and others). They are regarded as modified crosses of equal arms, which are all but universally present in combinations with birds and feathers (plates CXLIV, _a_, _b_; CLIV, _a_), from the fact that in a line of crosses depicted on a bowl one of the crosses is replaced by a design of similar character. The arms of the cross are represented; their intersection is left in white. The interpretation of figure 317 as a highly conventionalized bird design is also in accord with the same interpretation of a number of similar, although less complicated, figures which appear with crosses. Thus the three arms of plate CLX, _a_, have highly conventionalized bird symbols attached to their extremities. In the cross figure shown in plate CLVIII, _d_, we find four bird figures with short, stumpy tail-feathers. These highly conventionalized birds, with the head in the form of a crook and the tail-feathers as parallel lines, are ill.u.s.trated on many pottery objects, nowhere better, however, than in those shown in plates CXXVI, _a_, and CLX, _e_. Figure 318 may be compared with figure 317.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 321--W-pattern; terminal terraces and crooks.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 322--W-pattern; terminal spurs]

Numerous modifications of a key pattern, often a.s.suming a double triangular form, but with rectangular elements, are found on the exterior of many food bowls. These are variations of a pattern the simplest form of which is shown in figure 319. Resolving this figure into two parts by drawing a median line, we find the arrangement is bilaterally symmetrical, the two sides exactly corresponding. Each side consists of a simple key pattern with the shank inclined to the rim of the bowl and a bird emblem at its junction with the other member.

In figure 320 there is a greater development of this pattern by an elaboration of the key, which is continued in a line resembling a square spiral. There are also dentations on a section of the edge of the lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXVI

LINEAR FIGURES ON FOOD BOWLS FROM SIKYATKI]

In figure 321 there is a still further development of the same design and a lack of symmetry on the two sides. The square spirals are replaced on the left by three stepped figures, and white s.p.a.ces with parallel lines are introduced in the arms of a W-shape figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 323--W-pattern; bird form]

In figure 322 the same design is again somewhat changed by modification of the spirals into three triangles rimmed on one side with a row of dots, which are also found on the outer lines surrounding the lower part of the design.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 324--W-pattern; median triangle]

In figure 323 the same W shape design is preserved, but the s.p.a.ce in the lower reentrant angle is occupied by a symmetrical figure resembling two tail-feathers and the extremity of the body of a bird.

When this figure is compared with the design on plate CXLVI, _a_, resemblances are found in the two lateral appendages or wings. The star emblem is also present in the design. The median figure in that design which I have compared to the tail of a bird is replaced in figure 324 by a triangular ornament. The two wings are not symmetrical, but no new decorative element is introduced. It, however, will be noticed that there is a want of symmetry on the two sides of a vertical line in the figure last mentioned. The right-hand upper side is continued into five pointed projections, which fail on the left-hand side. There is likewise a difference in the arrangement of the terraced figures in the two parts. The sides of the median triangles are formed of alternating black and white blocks, and the quadrate figure which it incloses is etched with a diagonal and cross.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 325--Double triangle; two breath feathers]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 326--Double triangle; median trapezoid]

The decoration in figure 325 consists of two triangles side by side, each having marginal serrations, and a median square key pattern. One side of these triangles is continued into a line from which hang two breath feathers, while the other end of the same line ends in a round dot with four radiating, straight lines. The triangles recall the b.u.t.terfly symbol, the key pattern representing the head.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 327--Double triangle; median rectangle]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 328--Double compound triangle; median rectangle]

In figure 326 there is a still more aberrant form of the W-shape design. The wings are folded, ending in triangles, and prolonged at their angles into projections to which are appended round dots with three parallel lines. The median portion, or that in the reentrant angle of the W, is a four-sided figure in which the triangle predominates with notched edges. Figure 327 shows the same design with the median portion replaced by a rectangle, and in which the key pattern has wholly disappeared from the wings. In figure 328 there are still greater modifications, but the symmetry about a median axis remains. The ends of the wings instead of being folded are expanded, and the three triangles formerly inclosed are now free and extended.

The simple median rectangle is ornamented with a terrace pattern on its lower angles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 329--Double triangle; median triangle]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 330--Double compound triangle]

Figure 329 shows a design in which the extended triangles are even more regular and simple, with triangular terraced figures on their inner edge. The median figure is a triangle instead of a rectangle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 331--Double rectangle; median rectangle]

Figure 330 shows the same design with modification in the position of the median figure, and a slight curvature in two of its sides.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 332--Double rectangle; median triangle]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 333--Double triangle with crooks]

Somewhat similar designs, readily reduced to the same type as the last three or four which have been mentioned, are shown in figures 331 and 332. The resemblances are so close that I need not refer to them in detail. The W form is wholly lost, and there is no resemblance to a bird, even in its most highly conventionalized forms. The median design in figure 331 consists of a rectangle and two triangles so arranged as to leave a rectangular white s.p.a.ce between them. In figure 332 the median triangle is crossed by parallel and vertical zigzag lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 334--W-shape figure; single line with feathers]

In the design represented in figure 333 there are two triangular figures, one on each side of a median line, in relation to which they are symmetrical. Each triangle has a simple key pattern in the middle, and the line from which they appear to hang is blocked off with alternating black and white rectangles. At either extremity of this line there is a circular dot from which extend four parallel lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 335--Compound rectangle, triangles, and feathers]

A somewhat simpler form of the same design is found in figure 334, showing a straight line above terminating with dots, from which extend parallel lines, and two triangular figures below, symmetrically placed in reference to an hypothetical upright line between them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 336--Double triangle]

Figure 335 bears a similarity to the last mentioned only so far as the lower half of the design is concerned. The upper part is not symmetrical, but no new decorative element is introduced. Triangles, frets, and terraced figures are inserted between two parallel lines which terminate in round dots with parallel lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXVII

GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM AWATOBI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 337--Double triangle and feathers]