holmes] AGE AND USES OF POTTERY. 371 



Age. — There can be no reasonable doubt that the manufacture of 

 this ware began many centuries before the advent of the white race, 

 but it is equally certain that the art was extensively practiced until 

 quite recent times. The early exploi-ers of Louisiana saw it in use, and 

 the processes of manufacture are described by Dumont and others. 



Possibly Du Pratz had in mind some of the identical vessels now upon 

 our museum shelves when he said that "the women make pots of an 

 extraordinary size, jars with a medium-sized opening, bowls, two-pint 

 bottles with long necks, pots or jugs for containing bear's oil, which 

 hold as much as forty pints, and finally plates and dishes in the French 

 fashion." 1 



Vessels were certainly made in great numbers by the Natchez and 

 other tribes within our period, and it is reasonable to suppose that they 

 belonged to the great group under discussion. If not, it w ill be necessary 

 to seek the cause of their total disappearance, since, as I have already 

 said, the pottery of this district, as shown by the relics, is practically 

 a unit. 



The introduction of metal utensils was a death-blow to the native in- 

 dustry, although some of the southern tribes, the (Jherokees, for example, 

 seem to have practiced the art continuously, in a very limited way, 

 down to the present time. There is but little evidence of the influence 

 of the art of the whites upon the ceramic products of this province, 

 although the forms are sometimes thought to be suggestive of European 

 models. It is certain, however, that the art had reached its highest 

 stage without the aid of civilized hands, and in the study of its many 

 interesting features we can feel assured that we are dealing with purely 

 aboriginal ideas. 



The pottery of this province is remarkably homogeneous in character, 

 and we are warranted in assigning it to a single period of culture, and, 

 in concluding, that the peoples who developed and practiced the art be- 

 longed to a group of closely-allied tribes. We can also state without 

 fear of precipitating a controversy that the people who made this pot- 

 tery were "mound-builders." At the same time, they were not neces- 

 sarily of the same people as the builders of the mounds of Wisconsin, 

 Ohio, or Georgia or contemporaneous with them. 



Use. — It is difficult to determine the functions of the various forms 

 of vessels. We are safe in stating that in very primitive times nearly 

 all were intended for use in the domestic arts, and that as time went on 

 uses were differentiated — form, as a consequence, undergoing many 

 changes. Early writers on the Southern States mention a number of 

 ordinary uses, such as cooking, the carrying and boiling of water, the 

 manufacture of sugar and salt, and the preservation of honey, oil, and 

 paint. 



Only a small percentage of the vessels, and these generally of the 

 pot-shaped variety, show indications of use over fire. It is well known 



Du Pratz: Histoire <le la Louisiaue, Vol. II, j). 179. 



