916 DESIGNS ON HOPI POTTERY [PTH. ANN. 33 
while each epoch grades almost imperceptibly into the one directly 
following it, an abrupt change is sometimes evident in the passage. 
In order to appreciate the relations between ceramic decoration 
and history let me sketch in brief outline what I regard as the his- 
torical development of the Hopi living near or on the Kast Mesa. 
We know little of the group of people who first settled here except 
that they belonged to the Bear clan, which is traditionally referred 
to the eastern pueblo region. At about the time they entered 
Hopiland there was a settlement called Sikyatki composed of Jemez 
colonists, situated about 3 miles from the southern point of East 
Mesa, and other towns or pueblos on Awatobi Mesa and in Antelope 
Valley, 10 miles away. 
The first great additions to this original population were Snake 
clans, who came from the San Juan, followed by Flute clans from 
the same direction but originally of southern origin. Having be- 
come well established at the point of the East Mesa, the combined 
settlement overthrew Sikyatki and appropriated its clans. 
Then came the strenuous days of Spanish invasion and the de- 
struction of Awatobi in 1700. The Little Colorado clans had already 
begun to seek refuge in the Hopi mountains and their number was 
greatly augmented by those from Zuni, a Rio Grande settlement’ 
called Tewadi, and elsewhere, each addition bringing new forms of 
culture and settling new pueblos on or near the East Mesa, as has 
been shown in previous publications. Traditions point out their’ 
former settlements and it remains for the archeologist to excavate 
those settlements, now in ruins, and verify these traditions. This 
can be done by a study of artifacts found in them. 
Asa rule archeologists have relied on technique, form, and especi- 
ally color, in the classification of Pueblo pottery, leading, on the 
technical side, to the groups known as (a) rough, coiled ware, and 
(b) smooth, polished ware; and on that of form, to bowls, vases, jars, 
dippers, ete. When color is used as the basis of classification the 
divisions black and white, red, yellow, orange, and polychrome are 
readily differentiated. Classifications based on these data are useful, 
as they indicate cultural as well as geographical differences in 
Pueblo ceramics; but these divisions can be used only with limita- 
tions in a study of stages of culture growth. The fact that they are — 
not emphasized in the present article is not because their importance 
is overlooked, but rather for the purpose of supplementing them with 
a classification that is independent of and in some particulars more 
reliable for indicating chronology and culture distinctions. 
The life-forms on ancient Sikyatki and other Hopi pottery are 
painted on what is known as yellow ware, which is regarded by some 
authors as characteristic of the Hopi area; but pottery of the same 
color, yet with radically different symbolic life-forms, occurs also 
