20 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



LUNA TERRA-COTTA. 



Often serving as caps for the burial urns, or within or near them, were found 

 the small painted vessels frequently alluded to before. Their extraordinary style 

 of ornamentation marked them as a class with great distinctness. No fragment 

 of this type was discovered, except in association with the burial urns. It was 

 given the name of Luna ware, because it was first met with and found in greatest 

 quantity on the hacienda of Don Jose Luna. 



In the collection delivered to the Smithsonian Institution were thirty-eight 

 pieces of this terra-cotta six of which were afterwards sent to the Peabody 

 Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. The 

 Smithsonian has, in addition, seven specimens from the collection of Captain J. 

 M. Dow, one presented by Commander E. P. Lull, U. S. N., and one of unknown 

 origin. All of these will be used here, to make the illustration and description 

 more complete. Credit is given by mention of the Smithsonian numbers. 

 Captain Dow's are Nos. 299, 300, 301, 304, 309, 310, and 313 ; Commander Lull's 

 is 14,104, and the unknown, 7,509. In the whole collection of forty-seven speci- 

 mens there are thirty-three bowls and two fragments ; eight vases, of which two 

 are tripods ; three plates ; one cup ; and an image of a man. 



The Luna terra-cotta was not thoroughly burned, and on exposure, after 

 having laid for centuries in the damp alluvium, it was moist, and had to be 

 handled with care. Exposure to the air, in the shade at first and then in the 

 sun, soon hardened it. The body was of clay, mixed with sand. 



No evidence of the use of shells appeared ; but as limestone abounds in 

 other districts of the department of Rivas, it is highly probable that chemical 

 analysis would show the presence of lime. The biscuit is of a reddish brown, 

 and seems to have been more thoroughly baked in some pieces than others. A 

 thick coat of cream or buff paint was laid on, and the designs painted in brown, 

 occasionally in red, the brown line sometimes having a red one on one side. 

 There is no glaze on this pottery. The surface was probably smoothed and pol- 

 ished, as is now done in the same neighborhood, by rubbing the wet surface with 

 a smooth stick or stone. The paint was afterwards laid on, and heat apparently 

 again applied. There is not a piece showing the effects of a temperature suffi- 

 ciently high to have vitrified a glaze. The style of the painted designs is entirely 

 distinct from that of any other pottery that I have seen, and would not be mis- 

 taken or confounded with other prehistoric American ware by the most careless 

 observer. The designs are conventional and awkward, but remarkably dis- 

 tinctive. No attempt at the representation of natural objects is seen, except a 

 figure on the inside of certain bowls, which was possibly intended to represent a 

 monkey ; and on the outside of several others, in the position of two handles on 



