Mohave Pottery Part 4

PLATE 6: BOWLS, PLATTERS, PARCHERS, CANTEENS

_a_, bowl, 4293; diameter 151 mm., height 76 mm. Design: inside, racc.o.o.n hand; outside, fish bone, atci isaka.[5] This is from Tokwa?a's wife.

_b_, broken bowl, 4282; d. 157, h. 85. Design; racc.o.o.n hand.

_c_. large bowl or platter, 1745, of type called suyire, d. 330, h.

125. Weight, 44 oz. The f.l.a.n.g.es to hold mesquite bark binding in place are unusually prominent.

This is the largest and second heaviest round vessel in the collection; but it is low, 38 per cent of the diameter--at the minimum for bowls, maximum for platters. It is not strictly a bowl, because there is no neck constriction: the vessel curves in unbroken convexity up to the rim. On the other hand it is not a typical platter because it has f.l.a.n.g.es and is bound like a bowl.

There are 11 of these f.l.a.n.g.es, 25 to 35 mm. long, projecting 5 to 8 mm., and s.p.a.ced quite irregularly, with 120, 95, 90, 55, 85, 65, 115, 95, 75, 120, 75 mm. between their centers.

[5] Atci is fish, isaka is bone, but the form mostly obtained was (i)ta?, backbone.

The bowls _a_ and _b_ are grouped together because of their racc.o.o.n-hand designs; compare also plate 4,_p_. Bowl _a_ looks unused and may have been made for sale; _b_ has been used and is probably from the same house, though almost certainly not painted by the same person.

The large platter-bowl _c_ has its painted design built up around four big rhomboids or hexagons, nearly rounded into pointed ovoids with triple solid tips; between which similarly pointed triangles project toward the center from the rim.

The oval platters _d_ and _e_, nos. 1738, 4294, are the convex backs or under sides of plate 3,_i_,_j_. The former looks used, the latter new and perhaps for sale. The tortoises on the under (6,_e_) and tortoise carapace on the upper (3,_j_) side of the same piece seem an exaggeration from normal Mohave style. In my field catalogue I entered _d_ as "dish-like spoon"; and _e_, two years later, simply as "oval spoon," which is confirmed by the notation: kam'ota kapeta, viz., "tortoise spoon."

The two katela or parchers, _f_ and _g_, having adjacent numbers, 13787 and 13788, are probably out of one household--a conservative one, inasmuch as they were secured in 1908. They differ slightly in proportions, yet are closely similar. Piece _f_, the longer and flatter, has its ends brought into a semblance of the abbreviated quail beaks and eyes found on some spoons--cla.s.s A2. The rims of both _f_ and _g_ are transversely flat and wiped or pinched over inward to extra thickness, then scored regularly with a fingernail or stick; in _g_ the outer edge has also been lightly punch-marked.[6]

[6] In 1904, I saw in a native house upriver from Fort Mohave a bi-pointed parcher or katela which had nose and eyes at the ends like those on quail spoons; and another which had along the edge a line of overlapping impressions that might have been made by the square corner of a board or tool. This description suggests 6,_f_ and 6,_g_, which I secured four years later at Needles.

The canteen in its net, _h_, no. 13793, has evidently seen use. This was the kind taken on journeys. There is a faded design of three vertical figures in double outline. Each of these consists of three near-rhomboids set on top of one another, with the joints between them open, so that the three of them appear as a single figure. Within each of the figures and between them there are dots 4-6 mm. in diameter. The bottom of the vessel is unpainted.

The plain duck seed-bin or canteen _i_, no. 4297, would be practical for use sitting in the sand in the house or under the ramada shade. It contained melon seeds when I purchased it.

PLATE 7: SPOON BACKS, TOYS, PIPES, POT RESTS

_a_, back of spoon 13803 shown in pl. 4,_h_; l. 225 mm.

_b_, back of 13809 shown in pl. 4,_m_; l. 207.

_c_, back of 1749 shown in pl. 4,_o_; l. 113.

_d_, back of 13810 shown in pl. 4,_n_; l. 156.

_e_, back of 1736 shown in pl. 4,_e_; l. 123.

_f_, back of 1747 shown in pl. 4,_k_; l. 186.

_g_, back of 1731 shown in pl. 4,_b_; l. 201.

_h_, back of 13802 shown in pl. 4,_c_; l. 182.

_i_, back of 13808; l. 226; front not shown.

_j_, lizard figure, 1726; max. l. 110. Probably a toy or amus.e.m.e.nt; not used ritually.

_k_, hummingbird figure, 1727; l., beak to tail, 54.

_l_, clay pipe, 4264, boy's, unbaked, unfinished; l. 55.

_m_, clay pipe, 13870; broken, 62 mm. remaining.

_n_,_o_, clay pot rests, 4283b, 4283c; h. 92, 85.

The convex backs of spoons _a_-_i_ are not the only painted ones, but show the more ambitious attempts, if this adjective is applicable to rudeness of their degree. The prevalent painting is lengthwise striping, though crosswise (_i_), and both ways (_d_), occur. The lengthwise stripes may be plain lengthwise lines (_b_,_g_); heavy stripes with light (_e_) or with rows of dots (_f_); flanked by multiple zigzags and forming the fish backbone design (_c_,_h_); negative effect (_e_). Piece _a_ is irregularly interesting: three diagonally curved lines sweep across the convex back, and are subdivided by transverse lines into about a dozen triangles and quadrilaterals of unlike shapes; nine of these contain a polygonal spot or daub.

PLATE 8: JAR, CUP, PLATTER, BOWLS, SPOONS

This plate comprises vessels of various shapes which I had at first intended not to ill.u.s.trate or which had been overlooked.

_a_, large water jar, 13791, cla.s.sing with pl. 5,_a_,_b_. Rim diameter 255 mm., neck 227, maximum body diameter 315, height 255.

The design is of large solid hourgla.s.s figures separating rhomboidal-hexagonal areas each bordered by double lines and containing about 35 oval-round spots about 7-12 mm. across. The pattern recalls that of the interior of pl. 3,_d_.

_b_, handled cup, 38406, of the type of pl. 5,_h_,_i_. Mohave provenience a.s.sumed. Rim d. 100, h. 70. Interior design, 6 radiating lanceolate or petaloid areas, double-line bordered, containing from 33 to 50 spots. There are small solid triangles where the "petal" borders meet, and dots also in the peripheral s.p.a.ces. The handle is striped crosswise; the outside of the vessel, vertically. Compare pl. 5,_h_,_i_.

_c_, _under_ side of platter 1722, front shown in pl. 3,_d_; d. 203 mm. The design is a solid dark and light checker of 25 whole or partial squares.

_d_, bowl, 1721, d. 220 mm., h. 135, ratio 61 per cent. Design: the forked-and-angled pattern, crudely executed, and called teit?ok face paint. The dots were named hatuhk, rows of tattoo dots. The _outside_ is painted with crossing lines, forming triangles and diamonds, called soaka, small net.

_e_, large bowl, 1746, d. 320, h. 150, ratio 47 per cent. Wt. 41 oz. The interior design, called atalyke hamalye, leaves of an edible tuber-bearing plant, is fishnetlike: thin lines forming squares bisected by diagonals running one way; or, a network of right-angled triangles turning somewhat irregular toward the vessel's rim. Opposite acute angles filled in solid. This design apparently was begun by drawing 5 parallel lines across the interior, demarcating 6 segments. These were then crossed, nearly vertically, by 6 lines; and then by 6 diagonals. _Outside_, vertical stripes 10 or more mm. wide. There are three peglike projections, irregularly s.p.a.ced, to keep binding from slipping.

Two, broken off, are 7-8 mm. across; the third projects 11 mm.

_f_,_g_ are _outside_-painted bowls, both with height 48 per cent of their rim diameter, almost the same as _e_. _f_, 13777, d. 310, h. 150; thickness near bottom 7-9 mm., at neck 4.5-6, at lip 6.5-7; wt. 48 oz.--heaviest piece in the collection. _g_, 13781, d. 165, h. 80; wt. 14 oz. The design of _f_ is negative in effect: a band of light diamonds reserved on darker background; they are about twice as high as wide, and each is inner-outlined with a dark border. The interior is dark and worn smooth. The pattern of _g_ is irregular: diagonals sloping to the right, with left-sloping ones crossing every other one of these; but to the side, the left-sloping lines come thicker, the right-sloping ones are omitted.

_h_, 13790, is a fire-blackened bowl that has been cooked in and the contents run over; d. 185, h. 125, ratio 68 per cent. This is the maximum for a Mohave bowl, though equaled by pl. 2,_g_; and the shape is still that of a bowl rather than of a pot (olla) such as pl. 5,_c_. The ratio of rim, neck, and body diameters is 100, 95, 97 per cent for 8,_h_, whereas the pot 5,_c_ has 100, 91, 100 per cent, and its height is 77 instead of 68 per cent.

_i_,_j_,_k_, 13811, 1750, 13806, are spoons, the first blunt-topped, the last with 135 back-curved handle. The maximum lengths are 135, 140, 167 mm. The patterns are as follows.

_i_, no. 13811, outlined diamonds and triangles containing from 9 to 4 dots. The surface is worn, and the arrangement of figures of the two shapes may have been more regular than now appears; but the painting was slovenly at best.

_j_, no. 1750, very similar to the fishbone design of plate 4,_o_. There are 12 thinnish cross lines, each with four upward angles. 8,_j_ and 4,_o_ are very similar and bear adjoining numbers, 1750 and 1749, and were almost certainly the product of the same hand.

_h_, 13806, parallel line-angles, pointed right, then left, then again right across the front of the hollow of the scoop. These angles are formed by 18 or 19 cross lines.

SUMMARY OF SHAPES

_Bowls_: kwa?ki. Diameter about twice the height; neck concave, often strengthened with a lashing of mesquite bark; lip gently everted; princ.i.p.al design inside; outside design usually mere lines, stripes, rows of dots. H/D down to 38 per cent, usually 45-61 per cent, in two cases 68 per cent--one of these has been cooked in. (Pls. 1,_a_-_h_, 2,_a_-_h_, 6,_a_-_c_, 8,_d_-_h_.)

_Round platter or plate_: kaye?a. Lipless; continuous curvature.

Princ.i.p.al design inside (above). H/D 29-35 percent. (Pls. 3,_a_-_d_, _g_, 8,_c_.)

_Oval platter_: kayuka or kakapa. Like the last except for being oval, with width/length percentage between 78 and 89. They also average smaller than the round plates--modes around 160 mm. and 260 mm.