132 ABOKIGIIVAL PUITEKV OF EASTEKN U^ITED STATES [eth. a.n.n JO 



latter, make vessels corresponding somewhat closely to those of Musk- 

 hogean make in some of their features, hut these featui-es maj' have 

 been ])ut recently adopted bv them. In the region producing type 

 specimens, the material, shape, and ornament are so distinctive as 

 unitedly to give the ware great individuality; but in other localities 

 less typical forms are found to occur. In some sections the material 

 changes, and we have only the shapes and decoration as distinguishing 

 features, while in others we must depend on the decoration alone to 

 indicate relations]ii]i with th(> type forms. 



Materials and C'olok 



L^sually the paste is hard and heav}', consisting of clay tempered 

 with a large percentage of quartz sand or pulverized quartz-bearing 

 rock. Occasional specimens from the Eastern Shore are tempered 

 with shell. In color this pottery is of the normal gray and brownish 

 hues of the l)aked clay. 



Form and .Size 



The vessels of this group are well built, and have even, moderately 

 thick walls and fair symmetry of outlin(>. The shapes are not greatly 

 varied as compared with other southern and with the western groups. 

 There are liowls, shallow and deep, mostly of large size, having both 

 incurved and recurved rims. There are pots or caldrons ranging from 

 medium to very large size, the largest having a capacity of 15 or 20 

 gallons. The form varies from that of a deep bowl to that of a much 

 lengthened subcylindric vessel. The base is usually somewhat conic, 

 and in the bowls is often slightly truncated, so that the vessels stand 

 upright on a flat surface. 



Uses 



As a rule the larger pieces show indications of use over fire, and it 

 is not improbable that this stamped ware was largel}' the domestic or 

 culinary ware of the peoples who made it, and that other forms less 

 enduring, and hence not so frequently preserved, excei:)t in frag- 

 ments, were employed for other purposes. This view would seem to 

 be confirmed in some degree by the occurrence of smaller and more 

 delicate vessels distinct in shape and decorative treatment along with 

 the stamped ware on village sites and in some of the mounds opened 

 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Some of these vessels, how- 

 ever, are so very distinct in every way from the stamped pottei'v, and 

 are so manifestly related to groiqas of ware in which stamped designs, 

 conic forms and quartz tempering were unusual, that we may regard 

 them tentatively as exotic 



The preservation of the culinary utensils elsewhere almost univer- 

 sally found in fragments is due to their utilization for mortuary pur- 

 poses. In no other province, perhaps, was the custom of burying the 



