298 POTTERY OF THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS. 



PECOS AND THE RIO GRANDE. 



In New Mexico, upwards of four hundred miles east of Saint George, 

 in the handsome upland valley of the Rio Pecos, we have the most east- 

 erly of the ancient Pueblo remains. The site was occupied at the time 

 of the conquest, but is now wholly deserted, a small remnant of the peo- 

 ple having gone to dwell with their kindred at Jetnez. 



The site of this village has been thoroughly examined by that learned 

 gentleman, Mr. A. F. Baudelier. It is his opinion that the remains show 

 at least two distinct periods of occupation, the first being marked 

 chiefly by a stratum of ashes, pottery, etc., of great horizontal extent. 

 This underlies more recent deposits which belong to tire people found 

 in possession, and whose arts are nearly identical with those of the ex- 

 isting Pueblos. 



The underlying stratum is characterized by great quantities of frag- 

 mentary coiled ware uniform with that of more western localities. At 

 the snuie time there is almost a total absence of painted pottery. 



The conclusion reached by Mr. Baudelier is that probably the coiled 

 pottery wherever found marks the occupancy of a people antecedent to 

 those who made painted ware. It is my impression, as already stated, 

 that the coiled form may be the most archaic of the ancient Pueblo 

 pottery, yet I think it best to notice two things in regard to the con- 

 ditions at Pecos. 



Iu the first place, it should be remembered that the painted pottery 

 found by Mr. Baudelier is said to resemble that of Nainbe of to-day, 

 nothing being said of the painted ware characteristic of the ancient 

 ruins of the west, and which is always found associated with the coiled 

 fragments, as at Saint George, in the same graves and even in the same 

 vessel, Pig. 241. We would not expect iu Pecos, or in any other place, 

 to find modern Pueblo ware like the more recent pottery from Pecos in- 

 timately associated with the ancient ware either painted or corrugated. 

 The only strange feature at Pecos is that the coiled fragments are not 

 associated with ancient painted ware as in other places. 



Mr. Baudelier advances the idea that this deposit of corrugated ware 

 may represent the site of an aucieut pottery, where the vessels were 

 laid out in heaps surrounded by fuel and burned as by the modern 

 Pueblo potters, the broken pieces being left on the ground, forming 

 finally a considerable stratum. If this is correct, then the true explan- 

 ation probably is that on this spot only the one variety of pottery was 

 made, the painted pottery of the same locality, if such was in use, being 

 made by potters in other parts of the village. Unless there is an actual 

 superposition of the ancient painted ware upon deposits of the coiled 

 variety, we learn nothing of chronological importance. 



The valley of the Eio Grande has furnished but few specimens of the 

 coiled ware, although it is known to occur along nearly its entire course 

 through New Mexico. 



