4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. SI 



Elden band designs considered in connection with the character of 

 the forms and other criteria of the pottery so decorated indicate that 

 this ware is the oldest found in the pueblo. 



The simplicity also of the band designs gives the ware the aspect 

 of maturity, and there is a fixity of the decorative art of the potters 

 not observed in other gray ceramics thought to be of a later period. 

 It is possible that an examination of the stratigraphy at Elden 

 Pueblo may corroborate this assertion. 



Band designs are accompanied by parallel stripings; the lines 

 are continuous around the concavity of a bowl or the swell of a vase, 

 their purpose being to border or to space the bands. (PI. 1.) Rarely 

 short, unmodified lines were used in the decoration of the banded 

 ware, and these outline the central symbol of the repeat. The hori- 

 zontal lines number from one to five between the bands. 



Both bands and lines are applied in agreement with the structure 

 of the ware, that is, on the coiling junctions, which are always hori- 

 zontal. The lines probably do not originate in the desire to simu- 

 late coils showing on the surface, as in the familiar corrugated ware. 

 In the early period corrugated pottery was made very sparingly and 

 appeared on the necks of vessels as flat strips rather than as rounded 

 relief coils. It is interesting to observe, however, that the band effect 

 is frequently noted on the finer coiled ware of a later period, when 

 coiling reached the plane of art. This is accomplished by the modi- 

 fication of a series of coils at intervals. (Hough, 1903, pi. 80.) 



Bands did not disappear at Elden Pueblo with the coming of 

 quadrant art, which is also old and was introduced from the north 

 here. They are evident in the short sections of bands worked into 

 the quadrant figures. Occasionally in the Little Colorado poly- 

 chrome ceramics short diagonal sections of bands appear in bowls. 

 A discovery of this sort from the Petrified Forest shows a departure 

 from the customary structural type and seems to be purely decor- 

 ative. (Hough, 1903, pi. 15.) The canteen (pi. 5, fig. 2) shows that 

 at an early period sections of bands were used in decoration. 



The fine specimen shown in Plate 2, Figure 1, is the most archaic 

 in feeling of the vessels decorated in band patterns. The decoration 

 is suggestive of the coiling lines discussed above. Interposition of 

 parallel line bands with diversified bands is seen on the large bowl 

 shown in Plate 2, Figure 2. 



Allied to the band series are all-over designs made up of a network 

 of interlocking diagonal strips applied to the interior of bowls. 

 (PI. 6, figs. 2, 3.) Doctor Fewkes was especially interested in these 

 unique designs and figured them in his report (1927). 



The designs in quarters, or quadrant designs, which are frequent 

 in Elden gray ware, seem to mark a profound change in Pueblo 



