AECHEOLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA. 293 



terraced figures ; the volute and key frets are missing. Several small 

 objects of the highest artistic importance were collected. These com- 

 prise a paint cup of oblong shape (Plate 9, fig. 1), a handled vase, a small 

 bowl, and a double bowl (Plate 9, fig. 2) of bright and lively red color; the 

 designs geometric in black enamel, outlined with white and sometimes 

 with black over a white ground. 



The unique vessel formed by joining two bowls is remarkably 

 attractive, even though broken. The potter has lavished on this object 

 her highest skill, and the result is an achievement in polychrome ware 

 which probably marks the highest attainment in ceramic art from the 

 Southwest. We may follow the construction of this vessel with a view 

 of explaining the processes involved. The potter formed two bowls 

 of selected clay and joined them while "green" by a short neck con- 

 necting the rims. She then washed the vessel with fine yellow ocher 

 and finished the surface with a smoothing stone. The interior of one 

 of the bowls was washed with cream-colored kaolin and also smoothed 

 with the stone. Having prepared her pigment for the black enamel, 

 the basis of which is iron ore, but the secret of its mixing, whether 

 with alkaline salts or resin, is lost, she skillfully laid on the interior of 

 one of the bowls a geometric design and on the exterior rims of both 

 various geometric frets, outlining the latter designs with stripes of 

 pure kaolin. The interior of the second bowl required the prepara- 

 tion of a second color, which should burn to soft gray and melt into 

 the background. The vessel was then fired, care being taken to pre- 

 vent uneven firing and smoke blemishes. The result shows a knowl- 

 edge on the part of the potter of materials, manipulations, and proc- 

 esses, from the selection of the clay to the last stages of firing, and a 

 highly developed artistic sense in form and color that command our 

 respect and admiration. That similar feelings toward the skillful 

 potter were entertained among ancients of the Southwest is shown by 

 a series of objects taken from a grave at Four Mile by the Fewkes 

 party in 1897. Carefully placed in this grave were all the implements 

 of the potter's craft, concave dishes, representing the beginning of the 

 wheel in which the ware was set during manufacture, smoothing stones, 

 a stone slab, and a mulling stone and grinder. Securely laid in a large, 

 well-made cooking vessel, on a bed of pine twigs, were various kinds 

 of clay and paints. Gourd formers and brushes of yucca strips, if any 

 such were buried, had decayed. With these objects were specimens 

 of excellent pottery. The pui-pose of this disposition seems clearh^ to 

 furnish this venerated potter the implements with which she might 

 continue her art for the benefit of the spiritual beings in the under 

 heaven. 



One piece of ware of the Gila type (Plate 10, ^g. 1) and several 

 fragments were all the examples of this type found at Forestdale. It 

 is evident that the ruins on the north slope of the White Mountains 



