670 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



The various shells of the rivers and ocean furnished a material of 

 great value to prehistoric man, and one which he could without much 

 labor apply to a variety of uses. Small shells were perforated and 

 used as beads; others were cut from the clam and mussel shells, which 

 furnished the wampum. The haliotis was ground from the back and 

 center so as to form bracelets. The same ornament made in the same 

 way has been found in great numbers by the brothers Siret in their 

 late discovery in southeastern Spain. The most interesting, as well as 

 artistic, of the ornaments made from shell are the gorgets, which are 

 especially noticeable for their engravings. They are sometimes cut so 

 as to represent, upon the outside, a human face, but many have been 

 found beautifully engraved in elaborate designs much resembling the 

 mythologic art of Mexico and Central America. No. 272, found in Ten- 

 nessee, represents one of these. 



POTTERY. 



The prehistoric pottery of Mexico and Central America forms a spe- 

 cial group; that from the Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico, another; 

 while that made by the North American Indian constitutes a third 

 group. Each of these has distinctive characteristics. 



The pottery of the North American Indian is in some respects like 

 the dolmen pottery of Europe, although it differs in many details of 

 form, mode of manufacture and ornamentation. The North American 

 Indian used neither wheel nor furnace, nor did he, except rarely, deco- 

 rate it with colors. The clay was frequently mixed with pounded 

 shells. The decoration of pottery made in the eastern portion of the 

 United States was effected by incised lines and dots, with various com- 

 binations. The spiral and volute were employed. Among the Southern 

 Indians much of the decoration was made by the impress of textile fab- 

 rics, sometimes with only a string or cord. In the interior, and princi- 

 pally on the Mississippi Eiver, the pottery vessels were made to rep- 

 resent sometimes the human form, sometimes animals. There was a 

 much greater prevalence of the bottle-form in the United States than 

 in Europe. 



Prof. W. H. Holmes, of the Bureau of Ethnology, has written an in- 

 teresting monograph upon aboriginal pottery in the United States, and 

 the late Col. James Stevenson described the Zuni and Pueblo pottery. 

 Both these papers have been published in the Reports of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, and are profusely and elegantly illustrated. 



The following are given as specimens of what may be found in mounds : 



No. 280 is from a mound in Tennessee; 281 from a mound in Illi- 

 nois; 282 from a mound in Union County, Kentucky; 283 a mound 

 in Tennessee; 284 a mound in Arkansas; 285 a mound in North Car- 

 olina ; 286, which is a bright red and the only one painted, is from a 

 mound in Tennessee; 287 is from a mound in Louisiana. 



