NO, 12 ARCHEOLOGY OF TAOS VALLEY JEANgON I9 



they bear the same name, in the Taos dialect, as a clan which formerly 

 existed at Taos but is now extinct, the Turwillana clan.' The fossils 

 are of the cylindrical variety marked with rings. It is possible that 

 their presence in the ruin may indicate that such a clan had lived 

 there. 



Another of these objects was a handsomely polished banded piece 

 of ribbon agate (pi. ii, h) probably used as a medicine stone, found 

 in room 8. The colors are white, cream, gray, light brown, and black- 

 in irregular bands. It measures 2^ inches in length and ^ inch in 

 greatest diameter. 



INDICATIONS OF BASKETRY 



While no baskets or fragments of basketry were found, many 

 potsherds with basket impressions on them (pi. 11, i) were picked up 

 during the summer, and these may be considered as a good indication 

 that the people did have baskets. Judging from the impressions on the 

 pottery fragments, the sticks of all the baskets used in the village were 

 about the same size. In one case only does it appear that a larger 

 bundle or rod had been used. On one fragment of pottery, there are 

 what appear to be textile impressions or smears ; these can be seen 

 only under a magnifying glass; how they occurred it is at present 

 impossible to tell. 



The presence of basket impressions on pottery, which are more 

 common in this region than at any other place where the writer has 

 worked, has been explained by Dr. A. V. Kidder in a discussion of 

 similar markings found on vessels from the Jemez Plateau. Dr. 

 Kidder writes : 



An extraordinarily high percentage of basket marked sherds is found at the 

 small house ruins. Such sherds occur, it is true, in most other Black-and-White 

 groups, but they are of greatest rarity. Here, however, they can be picked up 

 at almost any site. The impressions show that bowls and lower parts of ollas 

 were often formed in baskets. In these cases the clay was apparently coated 

 on the inside of the basket and pressed down hard enough to render the marks 

 of the weave sharp and clear. The upper parts of the ollas were probably 

 constructed by the regular coiling method. Some bowls, however, seem to 

 have been molded or cast entire in basket forms, as the impression of the 

 weave runs to the rim. The baskets themselves were of the coiled variety, tray 

 or bowl shaped ; the coils measure 4 to 5 mm. in breadth and there are about 

 six sticks to the centimeter.^ 



' Handbook of the American Indians, Bull. 30, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Pt. 2, 

 p. 690. 



^Kidder, A. V., Pottery of the Pajarito Plateau and some of the Adjacent 

 Regions of New Mexico. Mem. Amer. Anthrop. Assoc, Vol. II, pt. 6, p. 414. 



