16 ABORIGINAL POTTERY OF KASTERN UNITED STATES [eth.axx.20 



The collectionis made use of in the preparation of this paper are very 

 extensive, and represent a multitude of village sites, mounds, graves, 

 cemeteries, shell lieaps. and refuse deposits in nearly all sections of 

 the great region under consideration. At the same time it should be 

 noted that the material available is far from complete or satisfactory. 

 Much of it was carelessly collected and insufficiently la])eled, and some 

 districts are represented by mere random sherds which can not be 

 depended on as a basis for important deductions. The collections 

 made by the Bureau of American Ethnology ar(> the most important, 

 and some recent explorations have added material of a high order 

 scientilically. Of the latter the work of Mr Frank H. Cushing in 

 Florida and of Clarence B. Moore in Florida and other southern states 

 may be specially mentioned. 



Details not considered essential to the story of the art have been 

 omitted. Tedious recitals of form, color, size, and use of individual 

 specimens have been avoided, the illustrations being relied on as the 

 most satisfactory means of conveying a full and correct impression of 

 the art. It was intended ])y the Director of the Bureau, when the 

 preparation of preliminary papers on the various aboriginal arts began, 

 that the illustrations prepared as the work developed should be 

 brought together in final form in the monographic volumes of Contri- 

 butions to North American Kthnology. It was found, however, that 

 to utilize all of the material thus made available would in this case 

 make the volume excessive, so a careful selection has been made from 

 the earlier illustrations, and typical examples have been l)rought 

 together in plates. In the main, however, the illustrations here pre- 

 sented are new, as the old work did not extend much beyond the one 

 ceramic group represented in the Middle Mississippi Valley province. 



The writer is nmch indebted to officers and custodians of the follow- 

 ing institutions and societies for privileges accorded and assistance 

 given in the preparation of this work: The National Museum, Wash- 

 ington; the Davenport Academy of Sciences, Iowa; the Peabody Mu- 

 seum, Cambridge; the American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York; the Academy of Sciences. Philadelijhia; the Free Museum of 

 Science and Art. Pluladeiphia; the Museum of Art, Cincinnati; and 

 the Canadian Institute. Toronto. 



To many individual co]l(>ctors grateful acknowledgments are due. 

 Chief among them are the following: Mr W. H. Phillips, of Wash- 

 ington, whose cooperation and assistance have been of the greatest 

 service and whose collection of archeologic materials from the Potomac 

 valley is unequaled; Mr Thomas Dowling, jr., whose collections from 

 the same region have always ))een at the writer's disposal; Colonel 

 C. C. Jones, of Augusta. Georgia, to whom the country and especially 

 the southern states are indebted for so nuich of value in the depart- 

 ments of history and arclieology: General (iates P. Thruston. of 



