AET. 7 



ELDEN PUEBLO POTTERY DESIGNS — HOUGH 



It is necessary, of course, to treat each site or contiguous groups 

 of sites as a unit, and to study the developments of the potter's art 

 locally. Later it may be possible on the completion of such studies 

 to bring to bear correlations covering larger areas. By this means 

 we may trace the spread of types of ceramic art from an original 

 focus and allow for expedited or retarded developments in the unit 

 sites, and also estimate the dates of pronounced styles of decoration. 

 The study of the Elden ceramics is made on this basis. Gray ware 

 in pueblos that represent the consolidations and siftings of tribal 

 decay and movements reflects in its heterogeneity these movements. 

 A typical case is the confusion of forms and designs in Kidder's adobe 

 pueblo near the Pecos ruin. 



NEVADA 



UTAH 



COLORADO 



FIG0RE 1. — Map showing gray-ware centers, Rio Colorado and Rio Grande regions 



Description of the designs. — Elden gray ware divides itself rather 

 sharply into two classes of decoration, one in bands and the other in 

 quadrants. 



In bowls the band decoration leaves a circular area in the bottom 

 and the 4-part design a square area. (Pis. 1, 5.) The bands enforce 

 the seriation of the design elements in repetitions, and do not allow 

 the exercise of the ingenuity that is possible with the quadrants. 



Band decorations are very old in the pueblo region. They may 

 be said to originate in the partial decoration of the earliest pottery, 

 the lip borders and shoulders of the ware being ornamented with 

 clipped designs framed in a restricted space. The character of these 

 designs leads one to believe that the disintegration of symbolic 

 motives into patterns may be earlier than has been thought. The 



