76 POTTERY. 



of pottery was manufactured in the more western regions of the continent, as 

 shown by numerous fragments of ancient earthenware which occur, for in 

 stance, on the Little Colorado and Gila, especially among ruins, and are often 

 highly decorated and painted with various colors, exhibiting a style of work 

 manship differing from, and surpassing that, which prevailed on the eastern 

 side of the Rocky Mountains. The superiority of Mexican pottery compared 

 with that of the more northern tribes is too well known to be particularly 

 dwelled upon. 



The simplest clay vessels left by the eastern aborigines are bowls of a 

 more or less semi-globular shape, cut off abruptly at the rim and destitute 

 of decoration or any kind of handles. Such specimens vary much in size, 

 and are often of rude workmanship. The more elaborate articles of this 

 class, however, show two or more projections immediately below the rim. 

 Of this class is a vessel with four small horizontal projections, probably put 

 on for the sake of convenience as well as for ornament. In this specimen the 

 clay is mixed with particles of coarsely pulverized shells (Fig. 280, mound in 

 Tennessee). This vessel is not of very good workmanship. Much better is 

 a round bowl of larger size, provided on one side with a handle in the shape 

 of the head and neck of a bird (perhaps intended for a duck), and balanced, 

 as it were, on the other by a plain handle rising obliquely from the rim. &quot;With 

 some imagination the bird s tail might be recognized in the second handle 

 (Fig. 281, mound in Illinois). In this specimen the clay is slightly mixed 

 with pulverized shells, and the outside was originally painted brown. Similar 

 bird-shaped bowls have been figured and described; also such in which a 

 human head takes the place of that of a bird. Bowls of a more elaborate 

 shape contract more or less toward the aperture, where they terminate in a 

 rising rim. Such bowls are often furnished with projections or ears for facili 

 tating handling. A specimen of this kind (Fig. 282), which was taken from 

 a mound in Union County, Kentucky, is set with four ears around the circum 

 ference. Another bowl, formed of clay strongly mixed with pounded shells, 

 shows four equidistant small projections in the plane of the aperture. The 

 shoulder portion is ornamented with crescent-shaped impressions (Fig. 283, 

 mound in Tennessee). A third specimen of the class under consideration is 

 furnished with two mutilated studs projecting below the shoulder (Fig. 284, 

 Arkansas). It is shaped with tolerable regularity and much better burned 

 than any of those thus far described. This vessel seems to have been origi 

 nally coated with black paint. Small particles of shells are visible in the clay. 



A peculiar, though by no means uncommon type is shown in a fine speci 

 men very broad near the bottom and contracting, without forming a shoulder, 

 toward the comparatively narrow aperture. This vessel (Fig. 285, mound in 

 ]^orth Carolina) is flat-bottomed and ornamented on the outside with deeply 

 incised curved lines, distributed in regular patterns. There are small particles 

 of mica and of other stone perceivable in the mass of the clay. 



Vessels in which the portion projecting above the shoulder becomes narrow 



