NO. 13 ARCHEOLOGY OF TAOS VALLEY — JEANQON 23 



of lighter ones between it and the band (" N " Plate VII, Figure 8). Line 

 breakers in framers rare. " All over " decorations apparently fairly common, 

 particularly on small bowls. Design preponderatingly geometric and rectilinear, 

 life and curvilinear forms practically absent. [At Taos, a few sherds with 

 curves, one life figure.] Elements of design most commonly observed; coarse 

 hatching and cross-hatching; plain and dotted checker-board series of plain 

 triangular figures ; dotted lines and edges ; large stepped figures in opposed pairs. 

 Brushwork normally crude and uncertain, lines coarse. 



Paste composition — Paste, fine, very hard and homogeneous ; color ranges 

 from pure white (rare) through light gray to dark gray (rare). Many sherds 

 of even color from surface to surface, but in the majority the center is darker 

 than the edges. Gross tempering (sand or pounded rock) apparently absent.* 



No true biscuit ware was found, unless some of the vessels might 

 be considered to come under the classification given by Nelson in the 

 following quotation : 



There seem to be two kinds of biscuit ware, the most common being of a dull 

 white or light gray color, the other of a yellowish tone. This latter has its 

 probable forerunner in a more or less distinguishable variety of black on white 

 ware, but the prototype of the former has not been found so far." 



Although biscuit ware is found in the region, the writer is inclined 

 to believe that the Llano black on white ware does not represent a 

 form of biscuit ware, but a true black on white. 



To quote again from Nelson : 



The pottery actually figuring in the table is a local variety of the black on 

 white ceramic identified with the general sub-stratum of Southwestern Pueblo 

 culture. Bandelier generally associated the ware with " small houses," i. e., 

 with what might be called a pre-pueblo stage of sedentary life; but the data now 

 at hand enable us to state that the large quadrangular form of village typical 

 of the Rio Grande valley in later times was fully developed before the black 

 on white pottery went out of style. The ware as a whole is perhaps not quite 

 so tine [not the case at Taos] as that of Mesa Verde and Chaco regions on the 

 one hand or of the Upper Gila and Mimbres regions on the other. It is 

 particularly lacking in variety of form. In decorative symbolism it approaches 

 the abandoned northwestern Pueblo area rather more than the southwestern, 

 and is little, if at all inferior to it.' 



As far as could be determined there were no pre-pueblo houses in 

 the Taos region. The small ruins were apparently of the same period 

 as the larger ones. No differences were noted between the pottery and 

 other artifacts from the large and small sites. 



' Kidder, A. V., loc. cit., pp. 327-328- 



* Nelson, N. C., Chronology of the Taos Ruins, New Mexico. Amer. Anthrop. 

 n. s., Vol. 18, p. 169, Lancaster, 1916. 

 ^ Idem, page 171. 



