rEwkes] MINOR ANTIQUITIES wed 
low ridge and bearing basketware markings on the surface, made of 
course while the clay was soft. Others do not have the peripheral 
ridge and the rectangular surface markings. In no instance is there 
any trace of smoke or evidence that the slabs were used in cooking. 
The basketware impressions are not unlike those observed on the 
floors of several rooms, especially the room designated O, east of 
Pyramid A in Compound B. 
DeEcoRATION OF CASA GRANDE POTTERY 
As a rule the decoration of Casa Grande pottery partakes of the 
simplicity characteristic of ceramic ware found elsewhere in this 
region. We miss in it the pictorial element, or representation of life 
forms, that is so marked a feature of the pottery of the Little Colorado 
Fic, 43. Spindle whorls. 
and of true Hopi or Tusayan (Sikyatki) ware, rectilinear patterns 
predominating. It is almost impossible to distinguish some of the 
geometric designs on Casa Grande ware from decorat ions on pottery 
found in the cliff-dwellings of northern Arizona and southern Colo- 
rado. This is especially true of the gray-and-black ware, which is 
one of the most. ancient and widely distributed varieties in the South- 
west. The designs on the pottery from the Gila-Salt drainage have 
only a remote likeness to decorations on that from the Casas Grandes 
in Chihuahua, although the pottery from ruins on the upper Santa 
Cruz, one of the tributaries of the Gila, resembles well-known Mexican 
forms. As a whole, however, the ornamentation of the pottery from 
Casa Grande may be classed as Mexican rather than Southwestern 
notwithstanding many pieces show northern characteristics. 
While a characteristic polychrome ware is the most abundant 
at Casa Grande, there are found likewise vases of blac <-and-white* 
1 The potters of Casa Grande had made the important discovery, universal among cliff-dwellers and 
common in many pueblos, that a smooth surface can be secured by covering arough pot witha white slip, 
producing what, after deceration, is commonly called black-and-white ware. 
