ANCIENT POTTERV OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 159 



spots, the result of firing. The height is eleven inches, and the 

 ai)ertiire is ten inches in diameter. There are ten strong well-pro- 

 portioned handles, each having a knob resembling a rivet head, near 

 the upper end. The margin of the rim has a circle of indentations. 

 There are a few red vessels of this shape which have figures of 

 reptiles attached to the neck. 



WIDE-MOUTHED I50TTLES OR JARS. 



• Vessels of this class were probably not devoted to the ordinary 

 uses of cooking and serving food. They are handsome in shape, 

 tasteful in decoration, and generally of small dimensions. They 

 are found, as are all other forms, buried with the dead, placed by 

 the head or feet, or within reach of the hands. Their appearance 

 is not suggestive of their original office, as there is no indication of 

 wear, or of use over fire. 



Forms. — I include, under this head, a series of forms reaching 

 fr'om the wide-mouthed pot to the well developed bottle. They 

 really correspond closely to the high-neQked bottles in all respects 

 save in height of neck, and the separation is therefore, for conveni- 

 ence of treatment only. The following illustration, Fig. 51, will 

 eive a sood idea of the forms included. 



Fit;. 51. — F"onns of low-necked bottles. 



There are also many eccentric, and many extremely interesting 

 life forms included in this group. An extraordinary vase, modelled 

 after a human head, is, by its general outline, properly included. 



Ornamentation. — The rims, bodies and bases are embellished 

 much after the fashion of the vessels already described, with the 

 exception that handles, or handle-like appendages or ornaments sel- 

 dom appear. The painted designs are in one, two, or three colors, 

 and the incised figures have been executed both in the soft and in 

 the thoroughly dried clay. 



The style of execution is often of a very high order, especially in 

 some of the more southerly examples, a number of which are from 

 the mounds of Mississippi and Louisiana. We note the fact that in 

 a number of designs there is, to the student of American art, a de- 

 cided suggestion of Mexican forms. 



