FABRIC-MARKED POTTERY. 



675 



deft handling, or, if a basket of the same form was followed, the 

 basket was destroyed in the firing process. This would seem to the 

 modern mind a great waste of time and material, but it must be re- 

 membered that the Indian potter had not learned modern haste, and 

 besides could turn up a coarse basket in a very short time. There- 

 fore it does not seem improbable that he may, in the early stages, 

 have modeled his jar on the inside of a basket frame of similar 

 form and then allowed the basket to be consumed in the baking 



Fig. 1. — A Fabric-marked Jar. 



Fig. 2. 



process when it could not be separated from the vessel. Even 

 when he developed to a point beyond and modeled the upper por- 

 tions with a free hand, he would find great trouble in separating his 

 jar from its framework. What, therefore, would be the following 

 step? It seems to me it would have been the placing between 

 the clay and the mold of a piece of netting, which ^would permit 

 him to lift out his jar easily and intact, and transport it to the dry- 

 ing place. He would then speedily discover that his basket was not 

 necessary — was not so serviceable, in fact, as a hole in the ground, 

 for the sides of the hole could be plastered with a layer of very 

 sandy clay, and thus would all sticking of the vessel to its mold be 

 avoided. 



The netting, or fabric, having been spread as evenly as possible 

 over the inside surface of the mold hole, the upper edges were 

 allowed to lie out upon the ground. The soft clay being now 

 pressed evenly upon the fabric to the required thickness, the sandy 

 surface of the mold hole easily gave it shape and gave the potter 



