110 BULLETIN 15 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The pottery of the Gulf coast should be of primary interest in this 

 respect, as it shows the most striking resemblance to pottery forms 

 from Santo Domingo. Note should be taken of the vessels, includ- 

 ing large bowls with incised designs, figured in Holmes's Plates 

 55, 60, 61, 65, 67, 68, 70, particularly the specimen marked " c " in 

 plate 70; also plates 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77; the water bottle marked 

 " 6 " in plate 79 6, also plates 81, 87, 101, 110. 



Strangely similar are vases from a grave in northern Pennsyl- 

 vania belonging to the Iroquoian group figured in Plate 116. These 

 vessels are noteworthy in that they have a rounded base and globular 

 walls ; a central constriction and an upper oral sector with lozenge or 

 rectangular 4-lobed bulging frieze and wavy or scalloped margin. 

 Similar vessels occur in the island of Santo Domingo, particularly 

 on the Caribbean southeast coast. (PI. 51.) Such vessels, from the 

 Arawak of Santo Domingo and the Iroquois of New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, are similar in form and in decorative design so far as per- 

 tains to the incised decoration, differing in certain details only. 

 Figurine heads of an anthropomorphic type occurring on the Iro- 

 quoian vases bear a striking resemblance to the figurine heads simi- 

 larly placed on certain Santo Domingan forms. It scarcely gives an 

 accurate picture, however, to single out this one form of vase which 

 is decidedly the most characteristic form of Iroquoian ware, thus 

 disregarding the many dissimilar Tainan forms, also such Iroquoian 

 objects as the earthenware bowl pipe which does not occur at all in 

 Santo Domingo. We must furthermore admit that the globular 

 vessel just described with overhanging scalloped frieze, like the 

 upper deck of an old galleon, occurs also in Florida and elsewhere 

 on the Gulf coast. 



The pottery forms of the Middle and North Atlantic Slope 

 group, although they bear some resemblance to Iroquoian and Santo 

 Domingan forms, in the character of their incised decoration, never- 

 theless are of a distinct group. The Algonquian conical vessel with 

 pointed bottom, wavy rim, and dissimilar form of applied decorative 

 motif is most characteristic of the Algonquian coast area. 



Pottery from the Middle Mississippi Valley group again has 

 certain resemblances to Santo Domingan aboriginal earthenware, 

 but also certain other striking dissimilarities, both as to form and 

 as to decoration. For instance, a similarity may be noted between 

 Santo Domingan and Tennesseean incised angular geometric de- 

 signs, but dissimilarities become at once apparent if we consider the 

 arched handle from Tennessee mound potter}^, the shoe-shaped forms 

 and the many rows of encircling knobs occurring as decorative em- 

 bellishments on Tennesseean forms. Likewise the Middle IMississippi 

 type atTords certain similarities in banded circular and spiral incised 

 designs, from the Ohio Valley group, which design, however, ap- 



