FEWKES] INTRODUCTION DANG 
in other areas. It thus appears that while a classification of Pueblo 
pottery by color is convenient, differences of color are not so much 
indications of diversity in culture as of geologic environment. De- 
signs on pottery are more comprehensive and more definite in culture 
studies than color, and are so regarded in these pages. 
As there exists a general similarity in the form of prehistoric 
pottery throughout the Southwest, shape alone is also inadequate for 
a determination of Pueblo culture centers. The great multiplicity 
and localization of symbols on Pueblo pottery furnishes adequate 
material for classification by means of the designs depicted on vases, 
bowls, and other pottery objects. Sikyatki pottery is especially suited 
to a classification on such a basis, for it is recognized as the most 
beautiful and the most elaborately decorated prehistoric pottery 
found in the Southwest. Life-forms are abundant and their symbol- 
ism is sufficiently characteristic to be regarded as typical of a well- 
defined ceramic area. There can, of course, be no question regarding 
the ancient character of the designs on Sikyatki pottery, nor were 
they introduced or modified by white men, but are purely aboriginal 
and prehistoric. ; 
Pottery from the Sikyatki ruin is chosen as a type of the most 
highly developed or golden epoch in Hopi ceramics. Several other 
ruins were inhabited when Sikyatki was in its prime and pottery 
from these belongs to the same epoch, and would probably be equally 
good to illustrate its character. Fortunately, specimens are available 
from many of these, as Awatobi, and the ruins in Antelope Valley, 
old Shumopavi, and other Middle Mesa ruins. The date of the 
origin of this epoch, or the highest development of Hopi ceramics, is 
not known, but there is evidence that it lasted until the fall of 
Awatobi, in 1700. The destruction of Sikyatki occurred before 1540, 
but Silkyatki has given the name to the epoch and is taken as the type, - 
not only because of the abundance of ceramic material available from 
that ruin, but also because there can be no doubt of the prehistoric 
nature of material from it. 
There is abundant evidence that the culture of Sikyatki was never 
influenced by white man. After the overthrow of Awatobi there de- 
veloped on the East Mesa of the Hopi country a third ceramic epoch 
which was largely influenced by the influx of Tanoan (Tewa) clans. 
They came either directly from the Rio Grande or by way of Zuni 
and other pueblos. Among other arrivals about 1710 were those 
clans which settled Hano, a Tewa pueblo on the East Mesa. The 
Hano and other symbols introduced in this epoch are best known in 
the present generation by the earlier productions of Nampeo, an 
expert modern potter. 
The pottery of this epoch differs from that of the second in form, 
color, and technique, but mainly in its symbolism, which is radically 
