FBWKES] 



ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



29 



Fk 1 Lid ot jai 



Forms 



Every form of pottery represented by Nordenskiold, with the excep- 

 tion of that which he styles a " lamp-shaped " vessel and of certain plat- 

 ter forms with indentations, occurs in the collection here considered. 

 Nordenskiold figures a jar provided with a lid, both sides of which 

 are shown." It would seem that this lid (fig. 1)," unlike those pro- 

 vided with knobs, found by the author, had two holes near the center. 

 The decoration on the top of the lid of one of the author's specimens 

 resembles that figured by Nordenskiold, 

 but other specimens differ from his as 

 shown in figure 1. The specimens having 

 raised lips and lids are perforated in the 

 edges of the openings, with one or more 

 holes for strings or handles. As bowls 

 of this form are found in sacred rooms 

 they would seem to have been connected 

 with worship. The author believes that they served- the same pur- 

 poses as the netted gourds of the Hopi. Most of the ceramic objects 

 in Spruce-tree House were in fragments when found.« Some of 

 these objects have been repaired and it is remarkable that so much 

 good material for the study of the symbolism has been obtained in 

 this way. 



Black-and-white ware is the most common and the characteristic 



painted pottery, but frag- 

 mentary specimens of a 

 reddish ware occur. One 

 l^eculiarity in the lips of 

 f(^od bowls from Spruce-tree 

 House (pis. 16-18) is that 

 their rims are flat, instead 

 of rounded as in more west- 

 ern prehistoric ruins, like 

 Sikyatki. Food bowls are 

 rarely concave at the base. 

 No fragments of glazed pottery were found, although the surfaces 

 of some species were very smooth and gloss}^ from constant rubbing 

 with smoothing stones. Several pieces of pottery were unequally 

 fired, so that a vitreous mass, or blotch, was evident on one side. 

 Smooth A^essels and those made of coiled ware, which were covered 

 with soot from fires, were evidently used in cooking. 



Several spechnens showed evidences of having been broken and 



" See The CUff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, pis. xxviii, xxix : 7. 



"The text figures which appear in this paper were drawn from nature by Mrs. M. W. 

 Gill, of Forest Glen, Md. 



" The author is greatly indebted to Mr. A. V. Kidder for aid in sorting and labeling the 

 fragments of pottery. Without his assistance in the field it would have been impossible to 

 repair many of these specimens. 



Fig. '2. Repaired pottery. 



