370 ANCIENT POTTERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



boring sections. This is a usual phenomenon, and is probably due to a 

 variety of causes. The mere contact of peoples leads to the exchange 

 of ideas, and, consequently, to similarities in the products of industry. 

 A change of habitat, with its consequent change of environment, is ca- 

 pable of modifying art to a great extent. Groups of relics aud remains 

 attributed by archaeologists to distinct stocks of people, may, in cases, 

 be the work of one and the same people executed under the influence of 

 different environments and at widely separated periods of time. 



Mixed conditions in the remains of a locality are often due to the 

 presence of different peoples, synchronously or otherwise. This occurs 

 in many places on the outskirts of this district, a good illustration being 

 found in East Tennessee, where three or four distinct groups of ware 

 are intermingled. As would naturally be expected, the distribution is 

 governed somewhat by the great water-ways, and pottery of this prov- 

 ince is found far up the Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas Rivers. 



How found. — All peoples have resorted, at some period of their his- 

 tory, to the practice of burying articles of use or value with the dead. 

 It is to this custom that we owe the preservation of so many entire 

 pieces of these fragile utensils. They are exhumed from burial mounds 

 in great numbers, and to an equal extent, perhaps, from simple, un- 

 marked graves which are constantly being brought to light by the 

 plowshare. Fragmentary ware is found also in refuse heaps, on 

 house and village sites, and scattered broadcast over the face of the 

 land. 



This pottery, at its best, was probably not greatly superior in hard- 

 ness to our own soft earthenware, and the disintegrating agencies of 

 the soil have often reduced it to a very fragile state. Some writer 

 has expressed the belief that a considerable portion of the ware of this 

 province was sun-baked merely. This view is hardly a safe one, how- 

 ever, as clay, unmixed with lime or other like indurating ingredient, 

 no matter how long exposed to the rays of the sun, would, from ages 

 of contact with the moist earth, certainly return to its original con- 

 dition. I have seen but few pieces that, even after the bleaching 

 of centuries, did not show traces of the daik mottliugs that result from 

 imperfect firing. There probably was a period of unbaked clay preced- 

 ing the terracotta epoch, but we cannot expect to rind definite traces 

 of its existence except, perhaps, in cases where large masses, such as 

 mounds or fortifications, were employed. 



The relations of the various articles of pottery to the bodies with 

 which they were associated seem to be quite varied. The position of 

 each vessel was determined by its contents, by its symbolic use, or by 

 the pleasure of the depositor. Uniformity cannot be expected in this 

 more than in other features of burial. In other sections of the country 

 the pieces of pottery are said to have been broken before final inhuma 

 tion took place, but such was certainly not the practice in this province. 



