VESSELS IMITATING THE HUMAN HEAD. 



407 



from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in thickness, the base being 

 about three-eighths. The bottom is fiat, and takes the level of the chin 

 and jaws. 



The material does not differ from that of the other vessels of the same 

 locality. There is a large percentage of "shell, some particles of which 

 are quite large. The paste is yellowish gray in color and rather coarse 

 in texture. The vase was modeled in the plain clay and permitted to 

 harden before the devices were engraved. After this a thick film of line 

 yellowish-gray clay was applied to the face, partially filling up the en- 

 graved lines. The remainder of the surface, including the lips, received 

 a thick coat of dark red paint. The whole surface was then highly 

 polished. 



The illustration will convey a more vivid conception of this striking 

 head than any T description that can be given. The face cannot be said 



Fig. 420. — Head-shaped vase: Pecan Point, Arkansas.— i. 



to have a single feature strongly characteristic of Indian physiognomy. 

 We have instead the round forehead and the projecting mouth of the 

 African. The nose, however, is small and the nostrils are narrow. The 

 face would seem to be that of a youngish person, perhaps a female. 

 The features are all well modeled, and are so decidedly individual in 

 character that the artist must have had in his mind a pretty definite 

 conception of the face to be produced as well as of the expression ap- 



