HOLMES] POTOMAC-CHESAPEAKE POTTERY 151 



culinary pliases of the art may have resulted from the absence of cus- 

 toms demanding vessels for mortuarj^ purposes, ossuary burial at the 

 end of a more or less prolonged period having prevailed to the exclusion 

 of indi\'idual inliumation. At anj^ rate, the elementary character and 

 narrow range of the art are its most notable features, and it is remark- 

 able that tribes culti\ating maize and practicing several arts with 

 exceptional skill should have been such inferior potters. 



Whole vessels are rarely found in the region, and the archcologist 

 must depend for his material on kitchen middens and village sites 

 which furnish fragmentar}' remains exclusively. There is little 

 trouble, however, in securing enough evidence to reach a cori-ect esti- 

 mate of the nature and range of the ceramic products. Only pots 

 and kettles and a few simple pipes were jaroduced. The ordinary 

 forms are deep l)owls and wide-mouthed pots of medium or small size. 

 Save in remote sections where western and southern tribes are known 

 to have wandered, we do not encounter such features as eccentric or 

 compound forms, animal shapes, constricted mouths, high necks, 

 handles, legs, or flat bases of any kind. Ornament is archaic, and 

 curved lines are almost unknown. These statements are in the main 

 true of the whole Atlantic Algonquian belt from Albemarle sound to 

 the Bay of Fiuidy. 



Though simple in form and archaic in decoration, much of the ware 

 of the great tidewater province was well made and durable. The 

 materials are the clays of the section, tempered with a wide range of 

 ingredients, including pulverized shell, quartz, gneiss, and steatite, 

 besides all grades of ordinary sand. The vessels were largely, if not 

 exclusively, culinary. 



Decoi-ation is to a larger extent than elsewhere of textile character, 

 though the Algonquian everywhere emplo3^ed this class of embellish- 

 ment. As a rule, the entire body of the vase is covered with imprint- 

 ings of coarse cloths or nets or cord-wrapped tools, and the ornament 

 proper, confined to the upper portions of the surface, consists in the 

 main of simple geometric arrangements of impressions of hard-twisted 

 cords. Details will be given as the wares of representative localities 

 are described. Besides the textile designs, there are similar figures 

 in incised lines, indentations, and punctures, or of all combined. In 

 plate cxxxva are a.ssembled a num])er of the figures employed, and 

 with them are placed some tattoo designs (b) copied from the work of 

 Hariot," Avhose illustrations represent the natives among whom the 

 Roanoke colony was planted. 



Rims are slightly modified for esthetic effect. Occasionally thej- are 

 scalloped, and inconspicuous collars were sometimes added. Various 

 indentiugs of the margin were made with the finger nails, hard cords, 

 or modeling tools. 



n Hariot, Thomas. A briefe and true report of the ntnv found laiifl of Vir^'inia. Frankfort. 1590. 



