48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



growing conceptuality and power of imagination. Now, no line of esthetic develoj>- 

 nient in more complete than that represented in the decoration of fictile ware, and 

 jhe author of this monograph, combining as he does thorough technical knowledge of 

 the potter's craft with high artistic skill and unique esthetic feeling, has been able to 

 trace in masterly fashion and to illustrate effectively the growth of fictile decoration. 

 As a faithful description of aboriginal pottery, the treatise will undoubtedly become 

 a classic; yet it is no less noteworthy as the most comprehensive (;ontribution tbus 

 far made to the history of one of the most important activities in those stages of 

 culture in which the shapement and decoration of pottery have ranked high among 

 the avocations of mankind. The monograph forms the body of tlie Twentieth 

 Annual Report. 



During the year the series of graphic rei)resentations of personages in the Hopi 

 pantheon collected l)y Dr. Fewkes, as mentioned in jjrevious reports, was sent to 

 press as a part of the Twenty-first Annual, under the title "Ilopi Katcinas. " Dr. 

 Fewkes also completed the illustrated memoir on his unique collections of pottery 

 and other material from Arizona and New Mexico noted in the last report. It is 

 in press under the title "Two summers' work in Pueblo ruins," as a part (if the 

 Twenty-second Annual. 



WORK IN TECHNOLOGY. 



Primarily Professor Holmes's monograph on aboriginal pottery of P^astern United 

 States is a description of the fictile ware classified by districts, so far as practicable 

 by tril)es, and also by technologic types. The art of the potter is old, far older than 

 written history, so that its beginnings can never be traced directly. The antique 

 and prehistoric wares themselves yield a partial record of the development of the 

 art, and the archjeologists of the Old World have been able to supplement and 

 extend the written history of pottery making through study of such material, and 

 their researches have lent interest to the ancient vessels and sherds with which the 

 museums of the world are enriched. Yet the fictile ware of Egypt and Babylonia, 

 Etruria and India, and other Old World provinces falls far short of telling the 

 whole story of the art, since it fails to reveal the actual motives and sentiments of 

 the early artisans — the relics are husks of the history of pottery making without the 

 vital kernel. Accordingly the archa;ologic studies in America supplement the Euro- 

 pean researches in a highly useful way. In the first place, the period of pottery 

 making by the American aborigines was comparatively short, so that the prehistoric 

 and the historic are closely related; and, in the second place, the several living tribes 

 within reach of current observation represent various stages in the development of 

 the art, so that opportunities exist in America for studying the motives and senti- 

 ments of the artisans engaged in all of the earlier developmental stages of the art. 

 In general, the craft of the potter may be said to arise in the social stage of savagery 

 or the i)sychic; stage of imitation, with its tedious growth through accidental improve- 

 ment; in general, too, tlic art may l)e said to expand and differentiate in the suc- 

 ceeding barbaric stage with the attendant divinatory concepts as motives; and it is 

 this stage, with its protean forms, textures, decorative devices, and modes of man- 

 ufacture, which has been found peculiarly inscrutable by students of the products 

 alone. Now, it is precisely this stage which is represented by most of the Aiueriran 

 aboriginal ware, both prehistoric and historic, and by the surviving tribes. Accord- 

 ingly Professor Holmes's description of the American ware, with his critical analysis 

 of tyi)es and interpretation of motives, would seem to afford not merely a supple- 

 ment to, ))ut a sound foundation for, the history of the potter's art. The mono- 

 graph, which forms the l)ody of the Twentieth Ainuud IJcport, cndirnces faithful 

 representations of some 250 typical specimens. 



Of the two special investigations concerning aboriginal iiidustiies undertaken during 

 the year, that by Dr. Fewkes in Porto Rico would seem to be of the more general 

 interest. While his trip to the Antilles was designed as a reconnoissauce of Porto 



