SMITHSONIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



79 



neck slightly expands at the aperture, and where it joins the body of the ves 

 sel it is surrounded by eight ornamental studs set in pairs. This vessel was 

 never painted, and therefore shows the natural gray color of the clay, in which 

 numerous diminutive fragments of shell can be seen. One of the finest 

 pieces of pottery in the collection (Fig. 292) is a bottle-shaped jar furnished 

 with a stout and convenient handle. The mutilated neck only shows a some 

 what rude linear ornamentation. This specimen, which consists of a gray 

 unpainted clay, mixed with small particles of a black mineral substance, was 

 taken from a mound near Provo, Utah Territory. 



There are in the collection some very large vessels which undoubtedly were 

 designed for cooking purposes. One of them (Fig. 293) is more than four 

 teen inches high, and measures nearly thirteen inches across the aperture. 

 The portion below the rim 

 shows a depression which 

 rendered suspension prac 

 ticable. This method had 

 to be resorted to, because 

 the kettle could not stand 

 on its lower part which 

 presents an almost conical 

 shape. The outer surface 

 of the vessel shows impres 

 sions of tolerably regular 

 pattern and apparently not 

 traced by hand, a circum 

 stance rendering it prob 

 able that the vessel was 

 modeled in a woven basket. 

 This remarkable specimen 

 ploughed up not far 



was 

 from 



Milledgeville, Geor- 



CI.AY VESSEL (]-). 



gia. Large clay vessels 

 of a more elongated form, 



though less conical at the bottom, undoubtedly were employed as funeral 

 vases among certain tribes of the South, for several such vessels containing 

 human bones have been taken from southern mounds. A specimen of this 

 description is preserved in the National Museum. This vase, which was badly 

 injured during its exhumation, resembles in general outline and size the speci 

 men just described. The depression below the rim is somewhat shallower, the 

 lower portion more rounded, and the outside shows impressions of a rather in 

 distinct character. The vessel was discovered in a low mound on the Oconee 

 Ilivcr, nine miles below Milledgeville, Georgia. When found, it was covered 

 with a well-fitting arched lid, and contained unburned human bones, which 

 soon crumbled to dust upon exposure to the air (NV. 12305 of the collection). 

 The largest vessels made by the Indians, it seems, were those used in pro- 



