HOLMES] LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY POTTERY 103 



southern sites ma_y represent the art of the urchaie ancestors of the 

 more advanced peoples of the vallej-, but at present we seem to have 

 no means of settling such a point. It is well known, however, that 

 single communities produced at the same time a wide range of wai-e, 

 the style, material, shape, and tinish depending on the uses of the 

 vessels or on the haste with which they were prepared. At Trov- 

 ville, Catahoula county, Louisiana, for example, a mound examined 

 liy agents of the Bureau of Ethnology yielded almost every variety 

 and grade of ware known in the South and Southwest, including 

 coarse shell-tempered ware, silicious ware, tine argillaceous ware, 

 stamped ware, red ware, fabric-marked ware, and incised ware. 



Of g'l'eat interest, on account of the perfection of its tinish, is a 

 variety of pottery found in graves and mounds on the lower Missis- 

 sippi and on Red river. Daniel Wilson publi.shed a cut representing 

 some typical sjiecimens of this ware from Lake Washington, A\'ashing- 

 ton county, Mississippi." Several years ago a number of fine examples 

 of the same ware, labeled *'Galtneys," were lent to the National 

 Museum by the Louisiana State Seminary at Baton Rouge. Photo- 

 graphs of some of these vessels were kept, but the Curator made no 

 definite record of their origin or ownership. A .small number of 

 pieces of the same ware are to be found in the various collections of 

 the country, notably in the Free Museum of Science and Art. Phila- 

 delphia. 



The most striking characteristics of the better examples of this 

 ware arc the black color and the mechanical perfection of construc- 

 tion, surface finish, and decoration. The forms are varied and sym- 

 metric. The black surface is highly jwlished and is usually decorated 

 with incised patterns. The scroll was the favorite decorative design, 

 and it will be difficult to find in any j^art of the world a more chaste 

 and elaborate treatment of this motive. In plate Lirt a photograph of 

 a small globular vase or bottle marked ""Galtneys" is reproduced. 

 The design is engraved with great precision in deep, even lines, and 

 covers nearl}' the entire sui'face of the vase; it consists of a double 

 row of volutes (plate liik/') linked together in an intricate and 

 charming arrangement, corresponding closely to fine examples from 

 Myccne and Egypt. A skilled draftsman would find the task of exe- 

 cuting this design with equal precision on a plane surface extremely 

 trying, and we can but marvel at the skill of the potter who could 

 produce it, properly spaced and connected in every particular, on 

 the surface of the globular vase. Farther up the Mississippi there 

 are examples embodying the same conception of compound volutes, 

 but the combinations are nuich less complex and masterly. 



I n plate Li four other vases, all presumably of this group, have Ijeen 

 brought together. They do not differ widely from the pottery of the 



n Wilson, Daniel, Prehistoric man, London, 1862, vol. ir, pp. '21-22. 



