The Stone Ages of South Africa. 129 



older of the two, but the decoration of the South African Neohthic 

 pottery may be said to belong to it. It is, however, an ornamenta- 

 tion of the rudest description, as appears from the illustrations. 



Pots or vases preserved entire are seldom decorated ; ornamented 

 potsherds are much more common. Fig. 190 of PI. XXV. repre- 

 sents a style of decoration consisting of incisions in clay, made in 

 all likelihood by tools, such as Cuts 6 and 7 of Fig. 185. These 

 fragments are from a rock-shelter in the Orange River Colony. In 

 Cut 1 of Fig. 197 (PI. XXVI.), a fragment of the Berea pot, the 

 decoration is very deep and very coarse ; in Cut No. 3 of the same 

 Fig. the punched dots are more regularly disposed, some of the 

 series being deeper than others, but although it may appear from 

 the slightly faulty figure as if some of the less pronounced rows 

 were produced by the impression of a sti'ing such is really not the 

 case. The specimen is from a rock-shelter at Burghersdorp, Cape 

 Colony. 



Seriated incisions may be thus said to be one of the characteristics 

 of the decoration. The pot, or vessel, represented in PI. XXIV., 

 Fig. 176, is very instructive in that respect, but at the same time it 

 shows a very great, and certainly artistic, advance in decorative art. 

 Eound the neck runs a single horizontal series of vertical, parallel, 

 shallow hatchings ; on the sides is another series of slanting Cuts 

 joining slightly above the middle with a double vertical one in 

 which the hatchings are parallel, the decoration thus formed repre- 

 senting somewhat the capital letter Y. 



This example is the best decorated earthenware vessel hitherto 

 discovered. In shape it is also unique. The ears are indicated, 

 but not perforated. The baking is thorough. The specular iron it 

 contains weighs 6 lbs. 



But although the specimen referred to is the only one known 

 that may lay claim to be artistically decorated, round the neck of 

 some, such as the one represented in Plate XXIV., Fig. 177, there 

 are horizontal lines which at first sight might be taken to have been 

 caused by the impression of string, but these lines instead of being 

 spiral are disjointed, and at the base of the neck is a circle of 

 seriate hatchings deeper than the impressed line and slightly slant- 

 ing. I know also of potsherds, plainly fragments of the neck, 

 bearing similar imprints. The impressed lines and circles of 

 that constricted part of the vessel suggest plainly the use of the 

 burin. 



In the open-air middens of the sea-board ranging from Port 

 NoUoth to Mossel Bay, the earthenware vessels and the shards 



9 



