§22 PREHISTORIC VILLAGES IN TENNESSEE [eTH. ANN. 41 
No. 3. Mingled with these objects were several hundred other frag- 
ments of domestic pottery and many animal bones. All the marrow 
bones had been broken in order to obtain the marrow. The bead or 
ear plug still retained a considerable portion of its original polished, 
glossy black surface, which had been worn away in some spots by use. 
About one-half of the black, hourglass-shaped beads found on the 
Gordon and Fewkes sites, and several fragments of fine sunfish- 
shaped bowls and small, fine-beaded-rim bowls, were originally pol- 
ished and colored. 
These fine specimens of the potter’s art resemble in polish and 
color a black ware made by the modern Catawbas, Cherokees, and 
the Santa Clara, New Mexico, Indians. Mr. James Mooney, of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, described to the author the following 
method which he had seen the Catawbas use in making their finest 
black ware: 
After the vessel or other object has received its final shape, and 
before it is baked, it is given a high polish by much rubbing with 
Fic. 134.—Method of burning Catawba ware 
certain very hard and smooth stones or mussel shells with edges 
properly shaped by grinding. Over these unbaked, highly polished 
objects selected fragments ot oak bark are piled, and the heap is then 
carefully and closely covered with a large inverted unbaked pottery 
vessel, as shown in Figure 134. Over this unbaked pot a large 
amount of oak bark is piled and then set on fire. This produces con- 
siderable heat and bakes the large inverted vessel. The penetrating 
heat finally sets fire to the oak bark fragments underneath it, which, 
being shut off from a full supply of air, burn after the manner of 
charcoal and produce a strong, penetrating black, which reaches to 
a great depth into the ware, thus producing the beautiful color. 
The glossiness arises from polishing. 
The modern Cherokee produce a black which is much inferior to 
the above by burning ground corncobs in a small excavation in the 
soil, over which the vessel to be blackened is inverted. They also 
produce an inferior black by burning corncob meal within the vessel, 
which, in this case, is covered to prevent too rapid burning of the 
meal and the escape of the smoke. 
