Pottery of the ancient Pueblos Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 225.--Wave-like indentation.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 226.--Wave-like indentation.]

In the example given in Fig. 225 the fillets are deeply indented, giving a wave-like effect. Another pretty variety is seen in Fig. 226.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 227.--Impressions of finger-tips.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 228.--Implement indentations.]

One of the most successful of these archaic attempts at relief embellishment is ill.u.s.trated in the fragment shown in Fig. 227. The raised edge of the fillet is pinched out at regular intervals, producing rows of sharp-pointed "beads." Over the entire surface impressions of the fine lines of the finger-tips are still distinctly visible. The dotted lines show the direction of the coil.

The indenting was not always done with the thumb or finger-tips, but a variety of implements were used. The vase, of which Fig. 228 shows a small fragment, had a figure worked upon it by indenting the soft coils with a sharp implement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 229.--Nail markings.]

The coil ridges were sometimes worked down into more regular forms by means of an implement and were left plain or were interrupted by transverse lines. Lines of nail marking are shown in Fig. 229. These lines are occasionally combined in rude patterns.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 230.--Incised lines.]

In the specimen ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 230, incised lines are drawn across the ridges of the coil.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 231.--Incised pattern.]

OTHER VARIETIES OF ORNAMENT.--I have already remarked that certain styles of decoration are confined to somewhat definite geographic limits. In the ancient Pueblo district we find that painted designs and coil ornaments are co-extensive, while within this area there are but rare examples of incised designs, stamped figures, or cord-marking. We find basket indentations, but these are in all cases the accidents of manufacture. The coil has often been laid upon the inner surface of a basket.

The fragment shown in Fig. 231 was picked up on the site of an ancient Pueblo village near Abiquiu, New Mexico. It is a portion of the neck and upper part of the body of a small vase which was covered by a simple pattern of intaglio lines, produced with a bone or wooden stylus.

Ornaments in relief, aside from the coil and forms resulting directly from its use, were sparingly employed and are of comparatively little interest. They consist of straight, curved, or crimped fillets, applied to the surface of the vessel as shown in Fig. 232. Additional examples are given in Figs. 233, 234, and 235.

Nodes, cones, and other forms are also used as seen in Figs. 236, 237, and 238. These are usually placed about the neck of the vessel, occupying the places of the handles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 232.--Applied fillet.]

MATERIAL.--The clay used in this ware was in some sections tempered with a large percentage of rather coa.r.s.e silicious sand, which gives to the surface a rough, granular look. In the south the paste seems to be finer grained than in the northern districts.

COLOR, ETC.--The color of the paste is generally gray, but in the province of Tusayan it is frequently yellow. In some cases the surface has received a wash of fine liquid clay, and a few bowls from the Little Colorado and Gila Valleys have designs in white paint covering the exterior surface. This ware is always well baked and extremely hard.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

FIG. 233. FIG. 234. FIG. 235.

FIG. 236. FIG. 237. FIG. 238.

Examples of relief ornaments.]

FORM.--The forms are not nearly so varied as are those of the painted ware. The leading variety is a round-bodied, wide-mouthed olla or pot, with flaring rim. Bottles are of rare occurrence, and bowls are not nearly so plentiful as in other varieties of pottery. Life and eccentric forms are occasionally found. Many small vessels of the more elongated shapes are furnished with handles, which are in most cases placed vertically upon the neck, and consist of single or double bands or ropes or of two or more strands twisted together.

USE.--As a rule the forms are such as have been devoted by most peoples to culinary uses, and in many cases the entire exterior surface is coated with soot. Plain vessels of similar outlines are used by the modern tribes of this province for cooking and serving food. Examples having very neatly or elaborately finished surfaces have apparently not been used over a fire. Those of large size doubtless served for the transportation and storage of water.

ILl.u.s.tRATIONS OF VESSELS.

As it is my desire to give this paper something of a monographic completeness, I shall present a typical series of the best preserved vessels of this cla.s.s along with some notices of the circ.u.mstances under which they were discovered. The treatment by districts or localities is for convenience simply, and has no reference to distinctions in the character of the ware.

DISTRICT OF THE RIO SAN JUAN.

Our first expeditions into the land of the cliff-dwellers were full of interest. We were not, however, the first explorers. The miners of the silver-bearing mountains to the north had made occasional excursions into the sinuous canons of the plateau district, and failing to bring back the coveted gold, told tales of the marvelous cities of the cliffs, and speculated upon discovering in the debris of ancient temples and tombs a portion of the fabled gold and jewels of the provinces of Cibola and Tusayan.

Notwithstanding our entire freedom from expectations in this direction, the thought gave color to our antic.i.p.ations, and it was not an uncommon occurrence to hear, about the slumbering camp fire, half jocular references to the "great pots of gold moons" that some one had whispered might be hidden away in the inaccessible cliffs that overshadowed us.

I shall not soon forget the incidents connected with the discovery of a pair of fine water-jars--one of which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 239. On the occasion of our first pa.s.sage down the canon of the Rio Mancos[4] I made the discovery of a group of fine cliff-houses on the south side, far up in the vertical walls. On our return I made it a point to camp for the night directly below these houses, although a dense growth of underbrush had to be cut away to give room for our beds by the side of the sluggish stream.

[4] Tenth Annual Report U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, p.

394.

The two finest houses were set in shallow, wind-worn caves, several hundred feet above the valley. One was almost directly above the other, the upper being reached by a number of notches picked in the nearly vertical rock-face.

I had ascended alone and was busily engaged in studying the upper house and tracing the plans of its fallen walls, when I heard a voice echoing among the cliffs. Descending hastily to the lower house I found that one of my men had followed me and was excitedly scratching with a stick among the debris of fallen walls. He had just discovered the rim of a buried pot, and was fairly breathless from the antic.i.p.ation of "piles of moons." By the aid of my geologic hammer we soon had the upper part of the neck uncovered, but hesitated a moment with bated breath before venturing to raise the rough stone lid. But there was no treasure--only a heap of dust. I was content, however, and when by a little further search we came upon a second vessel, a mate to the first, the momentary shades of disappointment vanished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 239.--Coiled vase from a cliff-house in the Mancos Canon, Colorado.--1/3.]

These vessels had been placed in a small recess, where the falling walls had not reached them, and were standing just as they had been left by their ancient possessors. The more perfect one, which had lost only a small chip from the rim, I determined to bring away entire. This I succeeded in doing by wrapping it in a blanket, and by means of straps, slinging it across my back. I carried it thus for a number of days over the rough trails of the canons and plateaus. The other, which was badly cracked when found, was pulled apart and packed away in one of the mess chests. It is now with its mate in the National Museum, perfectly restored.

The unbroken vessel is shown in Fig. 239 about one-third its real height. Its capacity is nearly four gallons. The clay is tempered with a large portion of sand, some grains of which are quite coa.r.s.e. The color of the paste is a light gray, apparently not having been greatly changed by the baking. A few dark contact clouds appear on the sides of the body. The walls are quite thin for a vessel of its size and are of very uniform thickness. The entire weight hardly exceeds that of a common wooden pail of the same capacity. The mouth is wide and the rim, which is made of a plain rough band, is one inch wide and abruptly recurved.

The vessel can hardly be said to have a neck, as the walls round gradually outward from the rim to the periphery of the body, which is full and nearly symmetrical. The narrow strands of clay have been coiled with something less than average care, the exposed surfaces being wide in places and in others very narrow. The thumb indentations have been carelessly made. Two small conical bits of clay are affixed to the neck as if to represent handles. These may have been intended for ornaments, but are as likely to owe their presence to some little superst.i.tion of the archaic artisans.

The companion vessel has also a capacity of about four gallons. Its form differs from that of its mate, being considerably more elongated above and having a more p.r.o.nounced neck. The material is about the same, but the color is darker and the workmanship is superior. The surface is coated with soot, indicating use over a fire in cooking food or in boiling water. The coil was laid with a good deal of care and the indentation was done in a way to produce a series of sharp points along the margin of the coil. The interior of the rim was finished with a polishing stone. A small cord of clay was neatly coiled into a double scroll and attached to the narrowest part of the vessel, corresponding in position to the k.n.o.bs in the other example. This ornament, though small, is nevertheless effective. Similar scrolls are found upon vases from many parts of the Pueblo Province.

It is an interesting fact that this vessel had been successfully mended by its owners. A small perforation near the base had been stopped by cementing a bit of pottery to the inside with clay paste. These vases were evidently the most important of the household utensils of the cliff-dwellers, especially as in this place water had to be carried, at least during a part of the year, from the creek five hundred feet below.

It is probable that baskets and skins were sometimes used for carrying water, and that the earthen vessels were used as coolers, as are similar vessels among many primitive peoples. That they were used for carrying water up the cliffs is indicated by the fragments that lie upon the slopes and point out the location of houses invisible from the trails below.

A large fragment of a similar olla was picked up in the valley of Epsom Creek, southeast Utah. This vessel was larger, neater in finish, and more elegant in shape, than either of those described. A sufficiently large fragment was discovered to show satisfactorily the character of the rim, the outline of the body, and the details of surface finish.

(Fig. 240.) The rim is but slightly recurved and the neck is high and upright. The body swelled to a diameter of about eighteen inches at the greatest circ.u.mference. The paste, as usual, indicates a gray clay tempered with coa.r.s.e sand. The inside is smooth and the walls are remarkably thin for so large a vessel, being about one-fourth of an inch in thickness. The coil is very neatly laid and indented, a variety to the effect being given by leaving occasional plain bands. This vessel is described by W. H. Jackson in the Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, Vol. II.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 240.--Part of a large vase from Epsom Creek, Utah.--1/8.]

Fragments of this cla.s.s of ware are found throughout the canoned region of southern Utah and for an undetermined distance into Nevada. I have already described fragmentary specimens from Kanab and therefore pa.s.s on to the west.

DISTRICT OF THE RIO VIRGEN.

The most notable collection of this coiled ware ever yet made in any one locality is from a dwelling-site tumulus near Saint George, Utah, nearly three hundred miles west of the Rio Mancos.

About the year 1875, the curator of the National Museum obtained information of a deposit of ancient relics at the above locality, and in 1876 a collector was sent out to make an investigation. The result, so far as collections go, was most satisfactory, and the account furnished gives an insight into the customs of this ancient people not yet obtained from any other source. On the Santa Clara River, a tributary of the Rio Virgen, about three miles from the Mormon town of Saint George, a low mound, which I suppose to have been a sort of village-site tumulus, was found. The outline was irregular, but had originally been approximately circular. It was less than ten feet in height, and covered about half an acre. One side had been undermined and carried away by the stream. The work of exhumation was most successfully accomplished by means of water. A small stream was made to play upon the soft alluvium, of which the mound was chiefly composed. The sensations of the collector, as skeleton after skeleton and vase after vase appeared, must have been highly pleasurable.

It is thought that the inhabitants of this place, like many other primitive peoples, buried their dead beneath their dwellings, which were then burned down or otherwise destroyed. As time pa.s.sed on and the dead were forgotten, other dwellings were built upon the old sites, until quite a mound was formed in which all the less perishable remains were preserved in successive layers.