STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 345 



Figure 189 is another iustauce of interesting ornamentation. In this 

 case the intervening lines and spaces are of equal width, but the de- 

 pressions or " lines " are curiously '' broken " by transverse, narrow ridges, 

 uniformly distant from each other. These transverse ridges are of the 

 same size, distinctly carved or molded, and nearly on a level with the true 

 surface of the fragment. The vessel to which this little piece belonged 

 was, evidently, broken intentionally, there being, where the fragment 

 was found, a mass of blackish powder and more than a quart of pieces, 

 all smaller than that in the figure, but equally covered with ornamental 

 lines. Although no stone was in the immediate neighborhood of this 

 and the other fragments when found, the mass of pieces indicated that 

 the pottery was crushed by a large flat stone. 



Figure 190 represents a i^erfect specimen of a small vase, such as is 

 occasionally met with in the graves of aborigines, and, if buried by 

 themselves, always in the immediate neighborhood of graves of adults. 

 This vase measures three and three-fourths inches in height, and is of 

 equal width at the mouth, including the flaring of the rim. The clay 

 has but a slight admixture of shell, and is identical with much of the pot- 

 tery found in fragments upon the surface of the ground. The ornamenta- 

 tion is the rudest we have seen. It consists merely of lines in series of 

 four each, at an angle with the rim of the vessel and of different lengths, 

 the longest being not over one and a half inches. These lines apjiear to 

 have been produced by drawing a pointed stick over the clay previously 

 to baking. The capacity of this vase is one pint and five fluid-ounces. 

 "When taken from the earth it was filled to the brim with a black dust 

 which, on examination, proved to be burnt bone and animal matter un- 

 mixed with earth. On exposure to the atmosphere this " black " powder 

 became gray, and shortly afterward, absorbing moisture very rapidly, 

 formed a dull, lead-gray, pasty mass. The top of the vase, as it lay in 

 sitUy was covered with a plate of mica about one foot square and half 

 an inch thick. Such plates of mica are quite common about the fields 

 in the neighborhood of Trenton, but are seldom met with in as large 

 size as that covering the buried vase. This vase is in size similar to 

 those found in the western mounds,* but is not ornamented with the 

 care which distinguishes the latter. It should be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that difference in ornamentation is scarcely a safe guide in the 

 separation of pottery into the production of the mound-builders and 

 that of the modern Indian. In gracefulness of outline the New Jersey 

 vase is the equal of that of the mound-buildcrs, while we have seen a 

 drawing of a large vase found in Vermont t wiiich exceeds in elaborate- 

 ness of details any figured by Messrs. Squier and Davis. The mound- 

 builders were never inhabitants of what is now known as New Jersey 

 nor of the State of Vermont, but pottery is sometimes found in these 

 sections the equal, in some instances, of the i>ottery of the West in style 

 of decoration, wiiile in all cases it is as hard and durable. 



* Anc. Mou. ISIiss. Valley, pp,. 188. 189, pi. xlvl. 

 t American Naturalist, vol. v., p. 14, fig. 1. 



