346 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



pots, jars without supports, incense burners, vases with handles, crocks, 

 tripod tazzas, vases without reliefs, trays, stamps, images, whistles, and 

 rattles. These were carefully catalogued, localized, and related to the 

 Indians formerly living on the areas where the pottery was collected. 



Seiior Anastasio Alfaro, director of the National Museum of Costa 

 Rica at San Jose, deserves great credit for the way the Costa Bican 

 specimens are in hand and for the illustration in every possible manner 

 by maps, paintings, photographs, etc., the derivation of the specimens 

 following the most approved museum methods. 



The frequent failure to see the relation of buried art works to the 

 tribes historically known to have occupied the spot gives rise to a great 

 deal of confusion and misapprehension. It is pleasant to see the new 

 leaven of scientific candor working in the science of archeology. 



The following notes on Costa Rican pottery by the late Professor 

 Gabb are interesting: 



The pottery now made is the coarsest and poorest I have ever seen. None of the 

 finely made and elaborately ornamented vessels found in the huacas or graves are 

 made at present. The use for half a century or more of foreign cast-iron pots and 

 .kettles has restricted this industry, and possibly helped to injure the character of 

 the work. But two or three vessels taken by me from the Tiribi graves certainly 

 not less than 50 or 60 years old are in no respect superior to those made at the pres- 

 eut day. Native earthenware is now only used for receptacles for chicha. The &quot;jars 

 are large, say from 10 to 20 gallons capacity, the form is very simple, the workman 

 ship is rough, the clay is coarse and badly mixed, the burning is almost imperfect, 

 and they are always without the slightest attempt at ornament. The jars are molded 

 by hand, the clay being added spirally and molded by the fingers and trimmed with 

 a smooth stick, in exactly the same manner as I have seen done by the negro women 

 in Santo Domingo. After a certain amount of drying they are burnt in the open 

 air in a fire of sticks heaped over them. Each jar is burnt separately. 1 



The general color effect of Costa Blcan ware is red or terra cotta, the 

 paste burning rather evenly. In No. 3060, a bowl from Aguacaliente, 

 from which the slip has been partially removed, the paste shows white 

 granules, most probably ashes, which was very commonly incorporated 

 with the clay in Central and South America as a degraissant. The 

 ash from bark or climbing plants yielding most silica was preferred. 2 

 In the common Nicoya ware the paste is coarse with broken rock, while 

 the fiuer ware has a homogeneous paste, the size and purpose of the 

 vessel determining the matter. 



Coiling was practiced by the ancient Costa Eican potter, as by the 

 present Indians of the country. This is evident from the large burial 

 jars. The multitude of small funerary cups, spoons, etc., do not show 

 coiling, and it is a question in the writer s mind whether coiling was 

 practiced or necessary in very small objects. The hemispherical pots, 

 Nos. 6986 to 7217, from Nicoya (?), apparently bear wheel marks. No 

 molds were used, and the modeling is generally rough. Stamps of 

 baked clay were used. The grotesques were not molded or stamped. 



1 Wm. M. Gabb, Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica. Trans. Amer. Philos. 

 Soc. Phila., Aug. 20, 1875, p. 512. 

 2 C. F. Hartt., Pottery among Savage Races. Amer. Nat., Feb., 1879, p. 81. 



