146 ABORIGINAL POTTERY OF EASTERN UNITED STATES [eth.akn.20 



the people or any of the jjeoph's eoiieerned on either hainl. to follow 

 their movements from place to place, to follow them back through the 

 mutations of their history? These (juestions and others come up for 

 consideration. Answers, or partial answers, to some of them will 

 j)robably be forthcoming as investigation goes on. 



Aside from these general questions, which are always uppermost in 

 the mind of the ethnologist, tliere are others which pertain to the 

 ceramic art in particular. What do these archaic northern fonns teach 

 of the beginnings and progress of art, and what can we learn from 

 theui of the inceptive stages of ornament? These queries have been 

 considered to some extent in the inti'oductory pages, and additional 

 suggestions are made in presenting the various groups of ware. 



To exactly what extent the Algonquian tribes are responsible for 

 the northern types of pottery, aside from those definitely assignable 

 to the Iroquois, may never be fully determined, but that these types 

 are largely Algonquian may be assumed from the histoi'ic occupation 

 of many sections l)y pottery-making communities of that family. 

 There are complications in the Ohio valley and also, to some extent, 

 in the northern Illinois-Indiana region, where the ceramic phenomena 

 are complex, apparently representing successive occupations of the 

 area ))y different peoples. It may in time appear that numerous stocks 

 of people were concerned, for, though the ceramic remains indicate in 

 general a primitive condition — a rather uniform grade of progress for 

 the peoples represented — there is marked divergence in the other 

 groups of products; art in stone, bone, and metal had reached a com- 

 paratively high degree of advancement in some sections. It may be 

 remarlvcd. however, that had the whole area now assigned to the 

 Algonquian stock been occupied Ijy that' stock from the first, to the 

 exclusion of all others, we could not expect uniformity in art remains 

 over so \ast an area. Ct)nnmuiities of the same blood and culture 

 grade, separated for a long peiiod ))V great distanves, and existing 

 under distinctive environments, would acquire and develop activities 

 and arts only a little less \aried than would nonconsanguineous groups 

 under like conditions. It is significant, liowever, that as we glance 

 ovei' the whole field we observe in the ceramic remains a marked family 

 resemblance, not an equality of grade only, but close analogies in 

 many features of treatment, form, finish, and decoration. 



Beginning in the coastal districts of the Carolinas, we pass to Vir- 

 ginia, to New Jersey, to Connecticut, to Massachusetts, and to ]Maine 

 through a series of groups exhibiting difl'erences in detail, but liaving 

 decided general likeness. If we pass from th(^ east across th(^ great 

 highland to the Ohio valley, we find that the differences are more 

 marked. There is a oeneral resemblance, with here and tlier(> signs 

 of stronger touches and more advanced ideas and practices, but as we 

 pass beyond to the upper Mississipjii and tlieCinat lakes, the East is 



