HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT FEWKES 475 



parative purposes and uncertainty as to the localities from which 

 individual specimens were taken. We know that the pottery figured 

 in the following pages came from the valleys adjoining the Mesa 

 Verde on the west, far enough down the San Juan River to establish 

 the fact that the area peopled by Indians who made the same pottery 

 was a large one. 



There are only a few collections from the area we are now con- 

 sidering and nothing of note from the Hovenweep National Mon- 

 ument, but the author had the good fortune to examine- a few small 

 collections found in the McElmo and tributary canyons and in the 

 ruins in Montezuma Valley, the majority of which were found 

 in the neighborhood of the Hovenweep National Monument and 

 in mounds situated in Montezuma County. A collection known as 

 the Williamson collection, gathered in this area, was exhibited for 

 many years in the First National Bank at Dolores, and through 

 the kindness of Mr. Williamson the author was able to take pho- 

 tographs and make a few drawings of the most striking specimens. 

 There are many relics besides pottery, but the most abundant type 

 belongs to the ceramic group called black and white or gray ware 

 with black designs. This ware belongs to the most flourishing 

 epoch of cliff dwellers. Figures of typical forms are shown in the 

 following illustrations : 



Plate 6, Figures 1 and 2, represent drinking mugs, the former 

 specimen closely allied to those from the Montezuma Valley and the 

 Mesa Verde. The essential character of mugs from the Mesa Verde 

 area, both on the plateau and the valley at its base, is the enlarged 

 base, which always has a greater diameter than the opening. The 

 decoration on this mug (pi. 6, fig. 1) is made up of black triangles 

 arranged in four series and divided into pairs separated by an 

 encircling band. The handle extends from the lip to the base — a 

 characteristic design — but in this particular specimen has no deco- 

 ration. This mug was found at the source of the McElmo 5 Canyon, 

 possibly at the three- walled tower at Mud Creek. Another mug 

 (pi. 6, fig. 2), in which the diameters of the lip and the base are 

 about equal, has its surface decorated in two zones separated by an 

 encircling band. The decorations in these two bands consist of 

 terraced figures separated by a zigzag white line shown in Plate 

 6. Figure 2. There were several other mugs in the collection, but 

 all have the same general character. The remarkable similarity 

 of these mugs to those found in the Mesa Verde cliff houses is 

 strong evidence that the culture of the Indians who lived in the 



6 A settler calls this the McElnun Canyon, from an old resident of that name. 



