REPORT UPON THE WORK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN 

 ABORIGINAL POTTERY IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR THE 

 YEAR ENDING JUNE ao, 188G. 



By William n. Holmes, Honorary Curator. 



The department of aborigiual pottery lias been enriclied (luring the 

 year by several very important accessions, numbering about 1 ,500 entries, 

 but including a much larger number of pieces. In previous years the 

 collections consisted to a large extent of modern products, most of which 

 were derived from the pueblo towns of New Mexico and Arizona, but 

 the body of the accessions of this year are prehistoric and represent 

 localities widely distributed. over the American continent. 



The agencies through which these acquisitions were made are (1) 

 those of the National Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, in- 

 cluding donations, purchases, and the products of original research by 

 the agents of these departments, an<l (2) tlioso of the Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogj^ through corres])onding channels. The bulk of the year's material 

 has been acquired through the agencies of the latter orgauizatiou. 



From the Mississippi Valley and the more easterly sections of the 

 United States collections were made chiefly by the agents of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, working under the supervision of Dr. CJyrns Thomas. 



They were obtained from mounds, graves, shell heaps, and from the 

 surface of the ground, and include many pieces of the ordinary abo- 

 riginal vases, pipes, etc., mostly of types already well represented in 

 the collection, but of much importance and interest as filling up gaps 

 in the series. In all there are upwards of 409 numbers. 



From the i)ueblo country the most important accessions are of the 

 ancient wares of ea.steru-central Arizona au<l western-central New 

 Mexico, and are the product of excavations made by Mr. E. W. Nelson. 

 They consist chiefly of vases and fragments of the coiled and white 

 wares of the earliest-known i)eriods of pueblo occupation and exhibit; 

 a number of new forms such as are not found farther north. Mr. James 

 Stevenson secured a number of ancient pieces from the province of Tu- 

 sayan. 



The purchase of two collections of Mexican antiquities has added 

 much to the collections of pottery. A small number of pieces come 

 from the valley of Mexico, but the more important accessions are from 

 H. Mis. 170, pt. 2 7 97 



