HOLMES] POTTERY OF EASTERN ALGONQUIANS 175 



In order tliat a fuller notion niaj' be convej-ed of the ai'tistie ability 

 of the pipe makers, and their plastic treatment of men and other crea- 

 tures, a number of pieces are assemV)led in plates cliv, clv, clvi, and 



CLVII. 



POTTERY OF THE NEW JERSEY-NEW ENGLAND 



PROVINCE 



General Characters 



The pottery of the coastal districts throughout the middle and north- 

 ern Atlantic states is uniformly archaic in its shapes and elementary 

 in its decoration. Entire spi^cimens are rarely found, as the custom 

 of burying vases with the dead was not so generally practiced here as 

 elsewhere, and the fragile culinary utensils found on the midden sites 

 are alwaj-s fragmentary. Sherds huve been collected all along the coast 

 and on the bays and tidewater rivers from the Chesapeake to Nova 

 Scotia. They abound on countless ancient sites, and are especially 

 plentiful in the shell deposits which line the shores. These wares are 

 to a large extent Algonquian in type, although there is more or less 

 blending with the Iroquoian wai'es of the interior districts along the 

 fall line" and beyond in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and some- 

 what nearer the ocean in New York and the New England states. The 

 materials are. as in the Chesapeake country, clays of no great puritj^ 

 intermingled with much coarse silicious tempering and, rather excep- 

 tionally, with pulverized shells and other substances. The paste is 

 hard and is moderately tenacious where well preserved, but it crum- 

 bles rapidly when decay once sets in. The fracture is rough and 

 uneven, and the colors are the usual brownish and reddish grays. 



Manufacture was confined almost exclusively to vases and pipes: the 

 former are simple utensils, and the latter are the small, bent trumpet 

 tubes common to the Algonquian areas. In shape the vessels are 

 extremely limited in range, extending to no other forms than those 

 included between a deep cup or bowl and a wide-mouthed pot. 

 Vessels of the latter variety wer(^ rarely more than 10 or 12 inches in 

 diameter or in depth. The rims were usually carelessly rounded or 

 scjuared ofi', and were seldom much thickened. Exceptionally they 

 were supplied with exterior bands, which in New England expanded 

 into a rounded frieze, resembling closely that of the Iroquoian ware. 

 The rims were also occasionally scalloped, as in the Chesapeake coun- 

 try and m New York. The neck was never greatly constricted, 

 the body swelled but little, and the base was often, especially in 

 the New Jersey region, considerably lengthened below, and was 

 decidedly pointed. Generally the walls were thin and the surfaces 



"The term " fall line " is applied to the rather abrupt line of descent that occurs where the upland 

 joins the lower tidewater districts. It passes through New York, Trenton. Philadelphia. Washing- 

 ton, and riichmiiiid 



