holmes] GENERAL DISCUSSION 271 



possible origins or' the same forms. In a separate paper I bave amplified 

 this topic, and bave discussed the relative importance of the influence of 

 natural and artificial products upon the conformation of utensils of clay. 



Handles. — In searching for the first suggestions of handles we must 

 certainly go back to the very beginnings of art, when men and women 

 employed leaves or vines to carry their children or their food, or to sus- 

 pend them for safety from the trees of the forest. The art of basketry 

 would naturally fall heir to this use of handles. Clay, bronze, and iron, 

 when they came into use, would also inherit some of the forms thus de- 

 veloped. There are, however, other sources of equal importance, among 

 which are animal forms, such as horns, and various forms of vegetable 

 growth, such as the gourd. The latter may again serve as an illustration. 



By cutting the body of the gourd longitudinally at one side of the axis, 

 we have dippers with straight or curved necks or handles. The primi- 

 tive potter would in like manner have the suggestion of a handled vessel 

 in clay, which, carried forward by the ever active spirit of improvement, 

 would in time give us the series shown in Figs. 215 and 216 : 



Fig. 215.- Origin of handles. 



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Fio. 216.— Origin and development of handles 



Ornament. — The shapes of vessels are, in a measure, ornamental, but 

 it is difficult to say just how much the necessary or functional characters 

 of particular forms have given way to decorative modifications. Pure 

 ornament is a feature not essential to the vessel. Its ideas may be ex- 

 pressed by three principal methods: by relieved, by flat, and by intaglio 

 figures. 



Relief ornament was not extensively employed by the ancient Pueblos. 

 The forms are few and simple, and nearly all are traceable to construc- 

 tional or to functional features. Thus the ornamental crenulated sur- 

 face of the coiled ware is constructional, consisting as it does of ridges, 

 resulting from the method of building. The kuobs, isolated coils, and 

 festooned fillets are probably, in some cases, atrophied forms of handles. 



Intaglio decoration is still more rare. It consists of incised, impressed, 

 and punctured figures. No designs of importance are produced by this 

 method, the most notable being the simple patterns traced by the 

 finger or a sharp implement upon the relieved edges of fillets in the 

 coiled ware. 



