6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.82 



incised grooves. Either the bands or the remaining parts of the 

 vessel were roughened uniformly; on three specimens by means of 

 the roulette, three by concentric grooves or bands, two by means of 

 zigzag lines, and one by the punctate method. In four cases the 

 area just below the rim of the jars is decorated with cross-hatched 

 incised lines and the encircling line of bisected cones. Thus far a 

 similarity is obvious. However, the tempering used in the Marks- 

 ville pottery differs radically from that common to the northern 

 Mississippi type. In the former case either pulverized potsherds or 

 small particles of hard clay are used; in the latter, grit or shell. 

 The base of all the Marksville vessels so far as could be determined 

 was flat. As to form, four of the Marksville vessels are bowls, four 

 vases, three jars, and one unique in shape. Only one is 4-lobed. 



Comparison between the Marksville and Hopewell wares shows a 

 close similarity, while in the case of Plate 1 we have a vessel identi- 

 cal with the Hopewell type. Independent invention of so compli- 

 cated a technique of decoration where there is such striking simi- 

 larity would seem improbable. Either the pottery was carried into 

 the South by the northern Hopewell Indians themselves or else it 

 reached the region through trade. Definite evidence of contact be- 

 tween the North and the South is found in the northern Hopewell 

 mounds. This consists of tortoise shells, barracuda jaws, and other 

 articles from the Gulf. On the other hand, the Hopewell Indians 

 and their characteristic culture could have originated in the South 

 and spread or migrated to the northern Mississippi States. The 

 former would imply a northern origin for the decorative technique; 

 the latter, a southern. If the latter hypothesis were true, we should 

 expect to find a relationship between this technique and other south- 

 ern pottery decorations. This point will be considered later. Also, 

 presuming the Hopewellians used pottery before the southern or 

 Marksville type spread to the North, we might expect to find in the 

 northern mounds a type of ware, different from the typical Hope- 

 well vessels, that had been used before the intrusion of a southern 

 type. Up to the present time there is no such evidence, so far as 

 the writer is aware. Future investigations may prove that the 

 Hopewell culture in the North is an amalgamation of certain char- 

 acteristics — mound building, pottery, barracuda jaws, tortoise 

 shells — derived both by trade and contact from the South and a 

 definite group of characteristics — realistically carved stone pipes, 

 copper, and obsidian — which originated with and were developed by 

 the Hopewell people themselves. 



Although there is not so much evidence of trade from North to 

 South as vice versa^ these vessels, nevertheless, might have been 

 traded into the South. Yet this would hardly account for the 

 variations from typical Hopewell decorations at Marksville, which 



