28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 41 



The people of Mesa Verde appear not to have come in contact with 

 tribes who traded these shells, consequently they never obtained them. 

 The absence of culture connection in this direction tells in favor of 

 the theory that the ancestors of the Mesa Verde people did not come 

 from the southwest or the west, where shells are so abundant. Al- 

 though not proving much either way by itself, this theory, when taken 

 with other facts which admit of the same interpretation, is signif- 

 icant. The inhabitants of Spruce-tree House (the same is true of the 

 other INIesa Verde people) had an extremely narrow mental horizon. 

 The}^ obtained little in trade from their neighbors and were quite 

 unconsciou^s of the extent of the culture of which they were repre- 

 sentatives. 



POTTERY 



The women of Spruce-tree House were expert potters and decorated 

 their wares in a simple but artistic manner. Until we have more 

 material it would be gratuitous to assume that the ceramic art ob- 

 jects of all the Mesa Verde ruins are identical in texture, colors, and 

 symbolism, and the only wa}^ to determine how great are the vari- 

 ations, if an}', would be to make an accurate comparative studj?^ of 

 pottery from diiferent localities. Thus far the quantity of material 

 available does not justify comparison even of the ruins of this mesa, 

 but there is a good beginning of a collection from Spruce-tree House. 

 The custom of placing in graves olferings of food for the dead has 

 preserved several good bowls, and although whole pieces are rare 

 fragments are found in abundance. Eighteen earthenware vessels, 

 including those repaired and restored from fragments, rewarded the 

 author's excavations at Spruce-tree House. Some of these vessels 

 bear a rare and beautiful symbolism which is quite different from 

 that known from Arizona. The few plates (16-20) here given to 

 illustrate these symbols are offered more as a basis for future study 

 and comj^arisons than as an exhaustive representation of ceramics 

 from one ruin. 



The number and variety of pieces of pottery figured from the 

 Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings have not been great. An examination of 

 Nordenskiold's memoir reveals the fact that he represents about 50 

 specimens of pottery; several of these were obtained by purchase, and 

 others came from Chelly canyon, the pottery of which is strikingly 

 like that of Mesa Verde. The majority of specimens obtained by 

 Nordenskiold's excavations were from Step House, not a single 

 ceramic object from Spruce-tree House being figured. So far as 

 the author can ascertain, the ceramic specimens here considered are 

 the first representatives of this art from Spruce-tree House that have 

 been described or figured, but there may be many other specimens 

 from this locality aAvaiting description and it is to be hoped that 

 some day these may be made known to the scientific world. 



