18 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 78 



This sets apart Chevlon ware and suggests a modernization and 

 freeing of decorative art as observed at Acoma though not to the 

 same extent. In Acoma decoration few of the customary Pueblo 

 symbols are recognizable; in the Chevlon ware many of the symbols 

 are present though handled in the free manner observed in the Little 

 Colorado region. Especial interest is centered on the volute promi- 

 nent in Chevlon design. This figure first appears prominently in 

 the pure gray ware period and so far as known is one of the earliest 

 motives in Pueblo ceramic decoration. 



As a bird symbolic convention, it is the most widespread of all 

 Pueblo design. It was freely incorporated in geometric and curvi- 

 linear bands or edgings. In areal treatment it formed the central 

 key to the bird figure representing the head. Chevlon ware employs 

 the large whorl as a separate unit design while the northern white 

 on black ware whorl is a continuous line repeat or rarely a discon- 

 nected spiral. 



In the use of a free field, for example in bowls, the Chevlon pot- 

 ters achieved remarkable artistic results. The bold exotic decoration 

 is striking. The fortifying of the design at appropriate places with 

 white is done in a masterly manner. Exterior rim decorations of the 

 ware are usually linear, white lines being decorated with applied 

 black dots. 



Some realistic figures occur rather frequently in Chevlon red ware. 

 Specimens found at Homolobi and Four Mile by Dr. J. W. Fewkes 

 and the writer show a remarkable conception and execution of these 

 figures.* A specimen of unmistakable importance not figured 

 from Chevlon shows two serpents with geometric patterns on the 

 body suggestive of the Mimbres, arranged as on the Mexican calendar 

 stone. 



Red ware. — At Grasshopper ruin, red ware is comparatively com- 

 mon among the potsherds in the debris. Complete specimens 

 recovered are deep bowls of soft paste, intense red in color, no 

 ornamentation on the exterior, and with decoration in black on the 

 interior. On account of the fragile paste this pottery is not often 

 recovered in excavations, and for this reason its prevalence in some 

 southern ruins is lost sight of. The collections of pot hunters who 

 save only entire specimens, in most cases, do not represent the t^^pes 

 found in certain ruins. Personal observation on the Delgar ruin 

 on the Tularosa, classed by recovered artifacts as a typical gray ware 

 site, led the writer to the conclusion that soft red ware existed in 

 equal amounts with the gray; The ware was encountered by the 

 untrained excavators, but was found in nearly all cases to be in small 

 pieces and was not collected. A census of the shards turned up in 

 the excavations, not from the surface, has been pursued by the writer 



^22d Ann. Rep., Bur. Amer. Ethnol., pt. 1, 1904, pis. 24, 25. 



