82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



posts around the outer margins (fig. 5). The orientation of the walls 

 with the compass and the two opposite entrances on east and west are 

 interesting features. We will discuss its cultural significance in a later 

 section, turning now to the artifacts recovered from it. 



Pottery 



Compared to artifacts of stone, bone, and antler, the pottery found 

 in house i was not overly abundant. Nevertheless, its complexity and 

 good technique indicates a considerable mastery of the ceramic art. 

 Had we been able to excavate the refuse heap of this house, we would 

 have obtained much more broken pottery, to judge from the collection 

 made at that spot by Mr. Douglas. Rim sherds especially had been 

 thrown out as being awkward underfoot, and the natives generally 

 seem to have been lamentably good housekeepers in this regard. The 

 following list indicates the total amount and main ceramic types 

 recovered : 



Complete pots, none. 

 Restored pots, none. 



Total number of sherds, 596 (rim 58, body 538). 

 Cord-marked sherds, 535 (rim 32, body 503). 

 Plain ware sherds, 52 (rim 26, body 26). 

 Incised body sherds, none. 

 Hematite stained on inside, 9 (rim 0, body 9). 



A fairly smooth gray paste predominates in all this ware, which is 

 extremely hard in the finished product. The texture of the pottery 

 appears to be somewhat crumbly, but this is due to the coarse river 

 gravel, or more often disintegrated stone used in tempering. Although 

 the broken edges of the sherds appear crumbly, they are not actually 

 friable, even when roughly handled. Classified on the grounds of 

 crumbling or flaking ware, however, the present pottery might fall into 

 the crumbling class. The degree of coarseness exhibited by the grit 

 tempering is highly variable in individual pieces but, generally speak- 

 ing, heavy tempering has been used. The pottery is well baked, in most 

 cases showing light gray all the way through, but in a small percentage 

 of the thicker sherds the interior is black, indicating an insufficient 

 firing. 



In color a rather dirty gray predominates, light or dark according to 

 the amount of soot present ; the inside of the sherd is in almost all cases 

 lighter and cleaner than the outside. All the sherds seem to have come 

 from utilitarian pots. The only exception to this gray ware consists of 

 nine sherds which are stained bright red on the inner surface. The 

 stain appears to be of red iron ocher. On the sherds in question this 



