NO. 8 MANAHOAC TRIBES IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 5I 



part of the State, the former being bounded on the east by the 

 Alabama line. 



Similar material must occur on many sites along the coast as well 

 as in the interior, and its distinctive feature makes it easily recognized. 

 As previously mentioned, this appears to be one of the earliest types 

 of earthenware encountered in the Middle Atlantic and Southeastern 

 areas, and the extreme limits of the region in which it is found 

 should be determined. 



Parts of three vessels found on the left bank of the Rapidan at 

 Skinkers Ford closely resemble material from southwest Virginia 

 figured and described by Holmes.*' Several specimens were illustrated 

 (Holmes, pi. 133) and described as " Potsherds with textile markings. 

 New River \^alley, Virginia." The textile impression is exactly like 

 that on plate 17, a and b, from Skinkers Ford on the Rapidan, and 

 plate 12, b, from Kellys Ford on the Rappahannock. Examples were 

 also found at Rogers Ford, also on the Rappahannock and less than 

 2^ miles from Skinkers Ford. It is interesting ware, and Holmes 

 wrote regarding it (p. 150) : " The people concerned may have 

 belonged to the Algonquian stock, for Algonquian features decidedly 

 prevail, but there is a possibility that they were Siouan." The same 

 question of identity is presented by the pieces from the Rapidan- 

 Rappahannock region, an area which, although claimed by the 

 Manahoac in 1608. may earlier have been the home of Algonquian 

 tribes. In this connection it is interesting to record that a conical 

 base of a vessel was found in contact with the fragments at Rogers 

 Ford, this form of base being suggestive of Algonquian pottery. 



A small fragment of similar ware, of a reddish color and bearing 

 the same impressions as on specimens b, from the sites at Kellys 

 Ford and Skinkers Ford (pi. 12, fig. 2 ; pi. 17), and also from Rogers 

 Ford (pi. 10), was found at Anacostia, in the District of Columbia, 

 some distance from the country occupied by Siouan tribes at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. Other small sherds found at 

 Anacostia show the same impression on the surface but contain 

 rather large pieces of crushed quartz as tempering, in this respect 

 again resembling certain pottery fragments from the site on the 

 Rapidan. 



The impression of nets are more readily distinguished, and the 

 meshes are often clearly defined. Several good examples of pottery 

 so decorated were found at Richards Ford, on the Rappahannock, a 



^Holmes, W. H., Aboriginal pottery of the Eastern United States. In 20th 

 Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1903. 



