Pottery of the ancient Pueblos Part 6

It is unfortunate that so few entire vessels of the painted pottery have been found in this region. The fragments, however, are very plentiful, and by proper study of these a great deal can be done to restore the various forms of vessels. In my paper upon this region, in the Annual Report of the Survey of the Territories for 1876, I gave a pretty careful review of the material then in hand. Finding that in very few cases were there whole vessels representing the achievements of the ancient potter and decorator, I presented a number of restorations from the better cla.s.s of fragments. This was done in a way that could lead to no serious misapprehension, as the fragments used were always clearly indicated. The expert need never go astray in his estimate of the character of the vessel to which given pieces belonged, and his restoration from them gives a completeness of conception to the reader or student at a distance that could never be acquired by the most careful study of ill.u.s.trations of the fragments. The fragments are exceedingly plentiful about camp sites and ruins, and fairly whiten the debris slopes beneath the houses in the cliffs. I found my mind so diverted by these fascinating relics that it was often difficult to keep the geologic problems of the district properly in view.

No tumuli or burial places were observed, but I suspect that careful search will bring them to light, and that they will yield much richer results than the scattered fragments of the surface. The district now under consideration comprises the entire drainage of the Rio San Juan.

It includes the well-known valleys of the Animas, the La Plata, the Mancos, the McElmel, and the Montezuma on the north, and the Chaco and the de Ch.e.l.ly on the south. On the north I include also a portion of the valley of the Rio Dolores. The center of the district will not be very far distant from the corner stone of the four political divisions of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

The collections from the valley of the Rio de Ch.e.l.ly, one of the richest sections of this district, are very badly scattered, and the vessels cannot be identified. Many fine things have been carried away to the south and are now in the collections from Cibola and Tusayan; while others have been brought east by the various expeditions without a proper record of the locality. This is to be regretted, as it makes it impossible to study the shades of distinction between the wares of neighboring localities.

Bowls were very numerous and greatly varied in size, finish, and ornamentation. Many have received painted designs both inside and out.

This occurs with those having nearly upright rims. Handled-cups of hemispherical shape are also common, but the heart-shaped bowls are of rare occurrence. Bottle-shaped vessels and ollas have not, as in the south, formed a prominent feature. For some of the latter very neat lids have been made, the rims being shaped for their reception. Upright vessels with handles are common. Eccentric or animal forms have not been found.

BOWLS.--The arrangement of the designs upon the bowls is far from uniform. In a great majority of cases, however, they occupy belts encircling the inner and outer margin. The fragmentary condition of the remains makes it impossible to restore designs that covered the entire surface of the vessels. The decorations comprise nearly all the usual elements and motives. In Fig. 272 we have a small bowl from Montezuma Canon, Utah. In form it is a deep hemisphere. The design is upon the interior surface, and consists of a broad band bordered by heavy lines and filled in with vertical lines. The rim is ornamented with seven pairs of dots. Fig. 273 is restored from a fragment obtained in southwest Colorado. It shows an interior ornament consisting of a well-drawn chain of volutes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 272.--Bowl: Montezuma Canon.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 273.--Bowl: Rio San Juan--1/3.]

Many of the bowls were large and handsomely finished, both surfaces being whitened and polished. A superior example is given in Fig. 274.

Neat borders have been applied to both interior and exterior surfaces.

They are suggestive of patterns produced through the technique of textile products, and consist of interrupted forms of the meander. I have restored from small fragments in this and other cases, for the reason that no large fragments of the finer vessels are preserved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 274.--Bowl: Rio San Juan.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 275.--Bowl: Rio San Juan.]

Fig. 275 ill.u.s.trates a very pleasing vessel. It is hemispherical, and about eleven inches in diameter. A narrow zone of ornament based upon the meander encircles the exterior margin of the rim, and a broad, carefully drawn design, consisting of two parallel meanders, Fig. 276, occupies the interior. It will be seen that the meandered fillets are in white, and the bordering stripes and the upper and lower rows of triangular inters.p.a.ces are in solid black, while the median band and its connecting triangles are obliquely striped. It should be noticed that the oblique portions of the meanders are indented or stepped. This is a very usual occurrence in these decorations, and may be taken as a pretty decided indication that they were copied, more or less directly, from textile ornamentation in which all oblique lines are necessarily stepped.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 276.--Painted design.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 277 and 278.--Handled cups: Montezuma Canon.--1/3.]

HANDLED CUPS.--Small cups were generally furnished with handles and probably served as ladles and spoons. An entire specimen is rarely found. Two are ill.u.s.trated in Figs. 277 and 278. They were obtained by W. H. Jackson from the ruins of Montezuma Canon. The handles of these vessels vary a great deal; some are flat, while others are round, consisting either of a single or a looped roll of clay; some are hollow, resembling the handles of gourds, and a few are made of twisted fillets.

This latter form belongs generally to upright cups.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 279.--Vase: Rio San Juan.]

OLLAS.--It is quite impossible to make satisfactory restorations of the vases or ollas from the small fragments recovered. The evidence is sufficient, however, to show that vessels of this cla.s.s were numerous, and often large. I have made two restorations of small examples belonging to this cla.s.s, of which there are fragments showing the neck and upper part of the bodies. The bottoms are so universally rounded that I have drawn full globular shapes; Figs. 279 and 280. The most striking character of Fig. 279 is the shape of the rim, which is fashioned for the reception of a lid. The same feature is noticed in a small vessel obtained at Zuni.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 280.--Vase: Rio San Juan.]

Examples of lids from the San Juan Valley are shown in Figs. 281 and 282. They were evidently designed for vessels of the cla.s.s just described. The specimen given in Fig. 281 is neatly finished and embellished, and the quality of the ware is very superior.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 281.--Vase lid: Rio San Juan.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 282.--Vase lid: Rio San Juan.]

HANDLED VASES.--Many small vessels were furnished with handles, some horizontal and others vertical. Of the first variety is the example shown in Fig. 283. The fragment was obtained from the great ruin at "Aztec Springs," Colorado. It shows a small, symmetrical vessel, with black lines and devices. The handle, which probably had a companion on the opposite side, is strong and neatly made.

Figure 284 represents a very pretty little vessel, brought by Mr. W. H.

Jackson from the Canon de Ch.e.l.ly. It is of the usual gray polished ware, the base being somewhat roughened by use. The design consists of encircling lines combined with a belt of disconnected triangular hooks or fret-links.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 283.--Handled bottle: Rio San Juan.]

Handled mugs with round bodies and wide high necks were in great favor with the San Juan potter. There are but two entire specimens in the collection. These were obtained by Capt. Moss, of Parrott, who stated that they, with other relics, had been exhumed from a grave in the San Juan Valley. Both are comparatively rude in construction, and seem to be considerably weathered. The one shown in Fig. 285 is decorated with a cla.s.sic meander which encircles the body of the vessel. The other, ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 286, has the upper part covered with simple figures resembling bird tracks.

Among the most novel works of the ancient potter are the flat-bottomed mugs with upright sides, and with vertical handles which extend the whole length of the vessel, giving very much the appearance of a German beer mug. For a long time it was thought improbable that a vessel of this character should be the _bona fide_ work of the cliff-dweller, for his status of culture seemed to call for globular bodies and rounded bases. But so many examples have been found that there is no longer room for doubt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 284.--Small bottle: Rio San Juan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 285.--Handled mug: Rio San Juan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 286.--Handled mug: Rio San Juan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 287.--Handled mug: Rio San Juan.--1/2.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 288.--Handled mug: Southern Utah.--1/2.]

Fig. 287 is restored from a large fragment brought from the San Juan Valley. Its walls widen a little below, and the very pretty ornament is somewhat unevenly applied. The handle is made of a double rope of clay, and extends from the lip to the base. The example shown in Fig. 288 was obtained in the vicinity of Provo, Utah, by Capt. G. M. Wheeler's expedition. It is so like those from the San Juan that I place it here for comparison. It is a little wider toward the base, and is nearly symmetrical. It is four inches in height and the same in diameter. A very similar vessel, probably from the Province of Tusayan, is found in the Keam collection.

DISTRICT OF THE COLORADO CHIQUITO.

The collection from this district, which includes the ancient provinces of Cibola and Tusayan, is already very large, and much more material will yet accrue, for pottery fanciers have taken up the search, and both whites and Indians are on the _qui vive_ for additional examples of the artistic and showy specimens.

The National Museum has procured many fine pieces through the agents of the Bureau of Ethnology, and the collection of Mr. Keam is especially rich in the pottery of Tusayan. Some of the finer examples of the latter collection are selected for ill.u.s.tration.

It seems unaccountable that such a large number of the ancient vessels should be preserved, and that too in a country where vessels are constantly in demand. Many have been picked up by the Pueblo tribes and laid away for especial uses or possibly as heirlooms; but many of those secured by recent collectors were obtained from the sites of ancient settlements, from burial places, and from caves, and brought directly to the market so recently made for them.

There can be no doubt that many of the specimens accredited to this district have come from neighboring or distant provinces; yet within the valley of the Little Colorado there are such wide variations from predominant types that foreign pieces cannot be readily detected. Many of the finer pieces of the white ware are rather new looking and show very superior taste and skill. The indications are that the manufacture of this white ware was kept up in portions of this district down to a comparatively recent date, possibly until the coming of the Europeans.

It will probably be impossible to determine just why and how the archaic types gave way to the transitional and modern. It may be found, however, that the influence of the Spaniard was a factor in the change.

Beside the archaic white ware and its closely a.s.sociated red ware the province of Tusayan furnishes two or three distinct varieties, all of which, unlike that ware, are apparently confined to very limited districts. These have been briefly described on a preceding page.

Many pieces of the white ware are of large size and of elegant shape and finish. Some of the ollas and bottles are masterpieces of the art. The texture of the paste is fine and the color is often quite white. The designs are uniformly in black and are superior in execution and conception to those of the north.

BOWLS.--The bowls are very generally hemispherical. The finish, like that of the pottery of the San Juan and the Rio Virgen, is rather rough on the exterior, and whitened and polished on the inner surface. The painted figures are confined to the interior, and are highly elaborated combinations of the usual geometric motives. They are generally made up of four sections of double-zoned borders such as occur on the exterior of vases, cut out, as it were, and fitted into the bowl in a cruciform arrangement, a plain square remaining in the bottom of the vessel. See Fig. 291. There are, however, many examples which consist of two encircling zones of ornament identical in style and arrangement with examples from the Rio Virgen, Figs. 230 and 231, and from the Rio San Juan, Figs. 248, 259, and 274.

In Fig. 289 we have a representative example of the bowls of ancient Tusayan. The outer surface is rudely trowel-finished, but the inside is well polished. The painted design consists of four parts arranged about a central square. Each part comprises a number of alternate bands of straight and zigzag lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 289.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

The superb bowl presented in Fig. 290 is nearly fifteen inches in diameter and seven inches deep. It is hemispherical but not quite symmetrical. Having been broken, it was mended by its owners after their aboriginal fashion. Two pairs of holes have been bored on opposite sides of a long fracture for the insertion of thongs. Other perforations have been commenced but do not penetrate the vessel. The walls are upwards of one-eighth of an inch in thickness near the rim, but are less than that throughout the body of the bowl. The paste is of a dark gray color, speckled with ashy-white particles, which may be pulverized potsherds.

The interior surface is finished with a slip of white clay and has received a fair degree of polish. The exterior is only trowel-finished and is much scarified by use. The interior is embellished with a very elaborate design, which is given with all possible accuracy in a plain projection, in Fig. 291. The work does not exhibit a great deal of skill or neatness in execution, but the whole design is carefully made out and well adjusted to the deeply concave surface. An a.n.a.lysis of this figure is easily given. It is a cruciform arrangement of four portions of rather elaborate double borders. Each part consists of two parallel bands, a princ.i.p.al and a subordinate, separated by parallel lines and taking the relation to each other always noticed in the two belts of designs painted upon the exterior of vases. Two of the sections are alike. The others differ from these and from each other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 290.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 291.--Painted design.]

One figure, consisting of three linked volutes, is defined in white by painting around it a black ground. The artist in painting this vessel has probably not thought of achieving anything beyond the filling up neatly of the four s.p.a.ces, and has followed the usual practice of borrowing his motives from other objects; yet it will not be wise to conclude that these figures are really meaningless combinations of lines. The persistency and individuality of certain motives makes it almost certain that they are not the result of aimless elaboration, and that the potter understood their significance. They are too purely geometric, however, to furnish any clew to us through internal evidence.

We have no resource beyond the a.n.a.logies of historic art. Modern tribes use the current meander to symbolize water, and a leading motive in many of these designs--the linked scroll running through a field of serrate lines--is wonderfully like some forms of the Aztec symbol for water, as may be seen by reference to the Mexican codices.