

NO. 12 ARCHEOLOGY OF TAOS VALLEY — JEANQON 21 



As will be seen from the illustrations the incisions on the various 

 vessels were not all made with the same sort of an implement. Most 

 of them are sharply cut, but in those shown on plate 12, d, e, f, a blunt 

 broad implement was used. 



All of the pots are more or less asymmetric, but so slight is the ir- 

 regularity that it is rather pleasing than otherwise. The balance in 

 form is also uneven ; taking the vessel as a whole and noting the line 

 of greatest diameter, we find that there is no set rule as to where it 

 occurred in the vessel. Sometimes the greater part of the jar was 

 above this line, and sometimes below it. 



Plate 13, b, illustrates a water jar of beautiful form, grayish in 

 color and showing only partially obscured coils in places. The paste 

 of this vessel is much finer than that of the ordinary cooking or 

 storage pot ; it seems to fall between the black ware and the black on 

 white decorated ware. 



All of the forms are strikingly reminiscent of the earlier Apache 

 forms, especially of the Apache water bottle. 



Basket markings on the bottom of pottery vessels are so common 

 as to give the impression that a large majority of the pots were started 

 in the manner described by Dr. Kidder on page 19. Some of the crude 

 black pots have excellent prints all over the bottom and often rising 

 as much as two inches up the sides. In plate 13, c, a black on white 

 piece, there may still be seen basket imprints just below the shoulder 

 where the white slip has more or less disappeared. The prints on the 

 bottom of this vessel are very plain. A number of interesting sherds 

 are shown in plate 11, i. 



Basket impressions have been recorded from many places. Dr 

 Kidder^ speaks of them in the San Juan drainage as follows : 



" Pottery vessels, on the other hand, were scarce and crude, and 

 usually bore on their bottoms the imprint of the baskets in which they 

 had been formed." 



Black on white ware. — Black on white ware was well represented 

 at Llano and appears to be related tO' the Rio Grande black on white 

 ware as well as to the southwestern Colorado wares. In the Taos 

 region fully one-third of the sherds are very good white with excellent 

 jet black decorations. One feature is very noticeable, namely, that the 

 crackling or crazing of the white slip appears to have been done more 

 by exposure to the elements than in the original baking of the ware. 



* Prehistoric cultures of the San Juan drainage. Proc. 19th Internat. Cong. 

 Americanists, p. 108. 1917. 



