12 PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART. [f.th ann.13 



made in imitation of tliem. The oixamental art of peoples well 

 advanced in culture often bears evidence of the influence of the system 

 of combination of parts followed originally in the textile arts, and little 

 art, ancient or modern, in wliicli men have endeavored to embody 

 beauty, is without strongly marked traces of this influence. By the 

 study of archaic ornament embodied in clay, wood, and stone, there- 

 fore, the archeologist may hope to add something to the sum of his 

 knowledge of ancient textiles. It should be noted that the pottery of 

 the mound-builders shows less evidence of the influence of textile forms 

 than does that of most other nations, and some groups of their ware 

 appear to present no recognizable traces of it whatever. 



Although much information has been brought together from all of the 

 sources mentioned, it is not at all certain that we can form anything 

 like a complete or correct notion of the character and scope of the art 

 as practiced by the mound-builders. No doubt the finest articles of 

 apparel were often buried with the dead, but a very small fraction only 

 of the mortuary wrappings or costumes has been preserved, and trom 

 vast areas once thickly inhabited by the most advanced tribes nothing 

 whatever has been collected. Of embroideries, featherwork, and the 

 like, so frequently mentioned by early travelej-s, hardly a trace is left. 



The relations of our historic tribes to the ancient peoples of our con- 

 tinent and to all of the nations, ancient and modern, who built mounds 

 and earthworks, are now generally considered so intimate that no objec- 

 tion can be raised to the utilization of the accounts of early explorers 

 in the elucidation of such features of the art as archeology has failed 

 to record. The first step in this study may consist quite properly of a 

 review of what is recorded of the historic art. Subsequently the purely 

 archeologic data will be given. 



