NO. 8 DESIGNS ON MIMBRES POTTERY — FEWKES 25 



oration may be called the " dual reversed stepped design." It is com- 

 posed of two terraced figures so placed that their terraces interlock, 

 leaving a zigzag line betw^een them. This is particularly characteristic 

 of black on white or gray ware which is most abundant on the oldest 

 decorated pottery of the Southwest, but it also survived into modern 

 times. In the Mimbres pottery as in other types it forms the most 

 abundant form of geometric decoration. The two series of reversed 

 terraces are different either in color or design. This is indicated 

 in the Mimbres by solid black on one side and hachure or parallel 

 lines on the opposite, while in the Casas Grandes pottery one series 

 is solid black, the other red, hachure being exceptional ; the terraces 

 here, acute angled among the pueblos, become right angles as in Mesa 

 Verde pueblos situated in both caves and open situations. 



The presence of this " dual reversed stepped design " on the ancient 

 decorated pottery of our Southwest in the judgment of some authors 

 relegates both Mimbres and Casas Grandes pottery to the pueblo type. 

 It suggests that the Mimbres pottery is old,^ and the fact that it is so 

 abundant on black and white ware, which is considered old, supports 

 the same conclusion. There are several other characteristic pueblo 

 designs on Mimbres pottery, as the interlocked spiral. They point 

 to pueblo affinities. 



The rectangle is found constantly on pueblo pottery; it is some- 

 times simply an outline but may be solid black or crossed by parallel 

 lines which may be cross hatched and form a checkerboard pattern 

 with or without dots. The edges of these rectangles may be dentated, 

 serrated, or without ornament, simply plain. The rectangular figure, 

 generally single but rarely double, is very common on animal designs. 



The realistic figures on Mimbres and the symbolic figures on 

 Sikyatki ^ ware have little in common ; there are comparatively few 

 realistic animal designs depicted on bowls from the latter ruin. It 

 was the habit of the Sikyatki potters to decorate the outside of their 

 food bowls as well as the interior with geometric figures, a habit 

 rarely if ever practiced by the Mimbres potters. The highly conven- 

 tionalized designs on the inside of Sikyatki food bowls were seldom 



^The black and white ware found elsewhere in the Southwest shows very- 

 few reahstic figures except in the Mimbres, but many simple geometric designs. 



' 17th Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, PI. CXXI. While 

 comparative studies bearing on the relation of Sikyatki pottery are not wholly 

 satisfactory it has seemed to the author that the affiliations of Awatobi designs 

 with those of Sikyatki are not as close as he thought a quarter of a century 

 ago. Awatobi pottery is nearer to that of the Little Colorado than is Sikyatki, 

 and this is also the teaching of tradition. 



