HOLMES] LIFE ELEMENTS IN DECORATION 113 



forms of pottery associated with them, although they exhibit features 

 so peculiar as to suggest that the type; ma}' have had a separate origin. 

 They are associated, at different points, with the remains of n(>arly 

 every variety of southern pottery. Although from the richest of shell- 

 bearing districts, this ware, in common with the Appalachian pottery, 

 is usually temjsered with silicious uiatter. 



The thickening of the margins of vessels in tliis group is a notable 

 and i^eculiar feature belonging to the ware from no other region. A 

 specimen from Tampa 

 bay, Florida, is pre- 

 sented in figure 54, and 

 a series of sections is 

 given in figui'e .5.5. The 

 surface retains but little 

 of the red color. These 

 bowls are symmetric in 

 shape and were neatlj' 

 finished with the polish- 

 ing tool. Usually a thin ^^- ^"^^"^^^ '™™ ^^"•'"^ 'i'^'"'^'' ^"* p''"^''°^ '" ™'°'"- 

 coat of red ocher has been applied. In a few cases the color forms 

 simple patterns, as is shown in figure 56. The pattern in this exam- 

 ple is executed in white paint on a red ground. This vessel has a 

 faring rim, only slightly thickened. 



In specimens from Mobile shell heaps there is. as has been already 

 mentioned, a certain suggestion of Mexican or Central American art, 

 and it is not impossible that definite correlations with the ware of the 

 South may in time be made. 



Life Elements in Decoration 



Before more eastern groups are treated, attention may be given to 

 the interesting decorations of the Central Gulf Coast ware. The for- 

 mal designs — the groupings of straight and curved lines, the meanders, 

 the guilloches, and the scrolls — were at first treated independently of 

 the life forms so variously embodied in the vessels; but as these studies 

 advanced it came to be realized that the life idea runs through all the 

 designs, and that the formal figures are connected by an unbroken 

 series of less and less conventional forms with thte semirealistic incised 

 designs and with the realistic plastic representations as well. This 

 is a very important matter to the student of the embellishing arts. 

 The investigation ' was begun by assembling each variety of crea- 

 ture embodied in the ware — man. quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, bat- 

 rachians. and fishes — placing the most realistic representations in 

 lioth relieved and incised forms first, the others following in the 

 series according to progress in conventional modification. The pur- 

 pose was to ascertain whether there was general consistenc}', whether 

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