L'60 POTTEKY. 



Superior. " The structure of the metal was also highly lami- 

 nated, as if the instrument had been brought to its present 

 shape by hammering out a solid mass of copper." 



Before the introduction of metallic vessels, the art of the 

 potter was more important even than it is at present. Ac- 

 cordingly, the sites of all ancient habitations are generally 

 marked by numerous fragments of pottery ; this is as true 

 of the ancient Indian settlements, as of the Celtic towns of 

 England, or the lake villages of Switzerland. These frag- 



O ' O O 



ments, however, would generally be those of rude household 

 vessels, and it is principally from the tumuli that we obtain 

 those better-made urns and cups from which the state of the 

 art may fairly be inferred. 



In North America the art of the potter certainly attained 

 to a considerable degree of perfection ; some of the vases found 

 in the tumuli are said to rival, "in elegance of model, delicacy, 

 and finish," the best Peruvian specimens. The material used 

 is a fine clay : in the more delicate specimens, pure ; in the 

 coarser ones, mixed with pounded quartz. The art of glazing 

 and the use of the potter's wheel appear not to have been 

 known, though that "simple approximation to a potter's wheel 

 may have existed," which consists of "a stick of wood grasped 

 in the hand by the middle, and turned round inside a wall of 

 clay formed by the other hand, or by another workman."* 



Among the most characteristic specimens of ancient Ameri- 

 can pottery are the pipes. Some of these are simple bowls, 

 smaller indeed, but otherwise not unlike a common every-day 

 pipe, from which they differ in having generally no stem, the 

 mouth having apparently been applied direct to the bowl. 

 Many are highly ornamented, others are spirited representa- 

 tions of monsters or of animals, such as the beaver, otter, wild 

 cat, elk, bear, wolf, panther, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, manatee, 

 eagle, hawk, heron, owl, buzzard, raven, swallow, parroquet, 



* Squier and Davis, 1 c. p. 195. 



