POTTERY OF THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS. 



By William IT. Holmes. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



A study of tbe pottery of the ancient Pueblo peoples is here com- 

 menced in accordance with plans formed years ago by the Director of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology, liis aim was to present to the world a 

 monographic work upon the splendid material obtained by the Bureau, 

 including with it the important collections made previously by him- 

 self. The preparation of this work has been postponed from time to 

 time with the view of completing the collections, which were being en- 

 riched by annual visits to the Pueblo country. Meantime I began the 

 study of the collection for the purpose of securing at the start a satis- 

 factory classification of the material on hand. 



The present paper is the first result of that study. I have, however, 

 taken up only the more ancient groups of ware, leaving the rest for 

 subsequent papers. A comparative study is not attempted, for the 

 reason that a detailed examination of all the groups to be considered is 

 absolutely essential to satisfactory results. Conclusions drawn from 

 partial observations lead generally to error. 



There were great difficulties in the way of treating satisfactorily the 

 modern varieties of ware, as no one had sufficient familiarity with the 

 language of the Pueblo tribes to discuss the ideographic phases of the 

 ornamentation. Mr. F. H. Cushing's studies bid fair to supply this 

 want, and his recent return from Zuiii has led to the preparation of the 

 valuable paper presented in this volume. 



Mr. James Stevenson, who has procured a large portion of the col- 

 lection of modern pottery, has published catalogues with copious illus- 

 trations. Most of the cuts have been prepared under my supervision, 

 and have been selected with the view of securing engravings of a full 

 series of typical examples for a final work. 



265 



