PEEHISTORIC ART. 



477 



the rims of the ear, were intended for suspension. He gives compara- 

 tive measurements of one of these vases with two white boys, a white 

 man and woman, and shows the general accuracy of size, form, and 

 feature. 



Plate 4:(), figs. 1, 2, represents two of these head-shai)ed vases, one of 

 which appears to be a death mask and tlie other not. They belong to 

 the Morris collection, and were on disi^lay at the Tennessee Centennial 

 Exposition, Xashville, 1897, where the author obtained a photograph. 

 Fig, 127 a, />, represents a head-shaped vase, front and profile views, 

 believed to be a death mask. It was found by Mr. C. W. Eiggs while 

 excavating a mound on the St. Francis Kiver, Arkansas. The features 

 are represented in a natural manner, such as is not known in free-hand 

 sculpture. The decorations of the face, like the foregoing illustrations, 

 have been done after the withdrawal of the clay from the mould. The 



a h 



Pig. 127. 



HEAD-SHAPED VASE DEATH MASK, FEONT AND SIDE VIEWS. 

 Thruston, Antiq. Teun., 'ii ed., 188", p. 94, flg. 20. Ij natural size. 



eyes have been slightly opened, the. nostrils and teeth are represented 

 by incisions impossible to ha\ e been made before, and the same is true 

 with the decorations on the cheeks and with the ears. Fig. 12S is a 

 head-shaped vase, not a death mask, of the red pottery of Arkansas. 

 It was obtained from a mound in the vicinity of Little Eock, and forms 

 part of the collection of Mr. Thibault. The United States National 

 Museum possesses another head-shaped vase (Cat. No. 91299) similar 

 to flg. 128 but still smaller. 



These head-shaped vases divide themselves into two distinct groups. 

 The specimens forming the first group are deaths masks, as becomes 

 more and more evident the more the objec^ts are studied; the other 

 group, while of the same general form as the first, the human head 

 being represented, has the face and features wrought upon it free hand, 

 as in sculpturing, without the aid of a mold or cast. The author does 



