618 ARCH^OLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 



The majority of the specimens from these two ruins were food bowls, 

 made of rough coiled ware, with a glossy black interior. This is also 

 a common kind of pottery from the tributaries of the Little Colorado 

 and is especially abundant at Four-Mile Ruin, near Taylor, and Pine- 

 dale. Sporadic specimens of this x>eculiar ware have been likewise 

 found at Homolobi and the ruin near the mouth of Chevlon Fork, 

 excavated in 1896. 



The characteristic decorated ware of the Pueblo Yiejo ruins is simi- 

 lar to that from the Salado Eiver, near Tempe. It has a gray color, 

 with black and red decorations, but is not glazed, and ordinarily is not 

 as glossy as the red ware of the Little Colorado. Specimens of this 

 ware have been found at Pinedale, Four-Mile Ruin, Chevlon, and 

 Homolobi, the relative proportion diminishing as the ruin is situated 

 more and more remote from the Gila River. A few specimens of white 

 and black ware and a limited number of plain red bowls were found, 

 but the characteristic yellow ware of Tusayan was not represented. It 

 will thus be seen that as we go south from Sikyatki, in Tusayan, the 

 yellow ware is gradually replaced by decorated red pottery, and that 

 the glossy black food bowls, with rough, undecorated exteriors, begin 

 at Homolobi, are more numerous at Four-Mile Ruin, and most abun- 

 dant in the Pueblo Viejo. The gray, black, and red ware also increases 

 as we go south. 



All typical forms of pueblo pottery appear in the Pueblo Yiejo. 

 Among these may be mentioned vases, jars, food bowls, slipper jars, 

 and the like. The geometrical decorations are similar to those on 

 pottery objects from ruins in northern Arizona. 



Kone of the ceramic objects which were collected in the Pueblo 

 Viejo were adorned with figures of animals or human beings, and this 

 rule seems to hold in all the Gila Valley ruins. This may be regarded 

 as an indication either of great age or of a primary state of pueblo art. 



It has been said that the custom of making vessels in the forms of 

 birds and other animals is of recent date among the Pueblos, but, as 

 already shown, such a statement is not accurate. I have described and 

 figured clay vessels in the form of birds from Homolobi, Chevlon, and 

 other ruins on the Colorado Chiquito. Equally fallacious, also, is the 

 statement that ancient vessels were not made with organs of the human 

 body in relief. A vase from a cave in the Nantack's is good confirma- 

 tory evidence bearing on this point. 



There is another instructive specimen in the collection from Pueblo 

 Viejo which shows human features in relief. An intelligent Mexican 

 laborer brought me, for sale, a jar which he claimed to have dug from 

 the ruins near San Jos^. I was disposed at first to doubt his state- 

 ment, but later gathered such convincing proof of his veracity that 

 there was no doubt of the antiquity of the vessel. The jar is made of 

 red ware, identical with many other specimens from this region, and 

 apart from its unusual decoration there is no reason to question that it 

 was found in this valley. The remarkable thing about this vessel is 



