CERAMIC GROUPS. 



In studying the collections from the Mississippi Valley, I find it con 

 veuieut to classify the ceramic products in three great groups, which be 

 long to as many pretty well-defined districts ; these I have named, for 

 convenience of treatment, the Upper Mississippi, the Middle Mississippi, 

 and the Lower Mississippi or Gulf provinces. Other pottery occurs within 

 the limits of these areas, but the examples found in the museums are so 

 few that very little of importance can be learned from them. 



The three groups enumerated are not equally represented. The great 

 body of our collections is from the middle province. The ware of the 

 Lower Mississippi or Gulf district, of which we have but a small num- 

 ber of pieces, has many features in common with the pottery of the mid- 

 dle district, and at the same time is identical in most respects with 

 that of the Gulf coast to the east. No well defined line can be drawn 

 between them ; but the ware of the north is wholly distinct and need 

 never be confounded with the other groups. 



MIDDLE MISSISSIPPI PROVINCE. 



Distribution. — It must not be inferred that there is perfect uni- 

 formity in the pottery of this, or any other, extended region; local pe- 

 culiarities are always to be found. The products of contiguous districts, 

 such, for example, as those of Mississippi County, Arkansas, aud New 

 Madrid County, Missouri, have much in common, and will at once be 

 recognized as belonging to the same family, yet the differences are so 

 marked that the unskilled observer could point them out with ease. 



As indicated by decided family resemblances, the wares of this group 

 extend over the greater part of the States of Missouri, Arkansas, aud 

 Tennessee, cover large portions of Mississippi, Kentucky, and Illinois, 

 and reach somewhat into Iowa, Indiana, Alabama, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. The types are better marked and the products more abundant 

 about the center of this area, which may be defined roughly as includ- 

 ing contiguous parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee, with a 

 pretty decided focal center, at least in the abundance of relies, at Pecan 

 Point, Arkansas. 



The borders of the district are necessarily not clearly defined. The 

 characters of the art products blend more or less with those of neigh- 

 1 ETII 24 369 



