POTTERY. 



In the early stages of human culture, the association of ceramic art with stone 

 art is well-nigh universal. Both stone and clay have archeological possibilities of a 

 high order. They are alike almost indestructible. In the case of stone, the 

 ingredients are already mixed and the firing is done by Nature's hand. It occurs, 

 therefore, in a more utilizable and available state — one that even invites use, and 

 was the first to appeal and yield to nascent human mentality. 



The conditions which gave rise to the discovery of the. uses of baked clay and 

 the appreciation of its economic and artistic importance were very different from 

 those surrounding the first race of tool-users. De Mortillet believed pottery to 

 be an invention of the neolithic period ; according to Rutot it dates back to the 

 cavern epochs of the paleolithic period. When necessity knocks hard enough, 

 the door of invention opens. The need of vessels must have been felt at a rela- 

 tively early stage in the history of primitive man ; and as the habits of the race 

 became more and more sedentary, the fragility of clay vessels, their weakest 

 point, counted less and less against them. The very fact that fictile products 

 are not easily transportable adds to their usefulness as a criterion for locating 

 culture areas. 



Great as is the value of ceramics from a practical standpoint, the interest of 

 the archeologist is centered rather in the role it has played in the development 

 of art. The plasticity of clay is particularly well calculated to stimulate the imagi- 

 nation. It yields readily to any form that fancy may dictate. These forms, 

 whether useful or ornamental, in themselves present surfaces that admit of further 

 decoration by means of engravings or painted designs, thus bringing into play 

 the great realm of art, from sculpture in the round and relief to engraving and 

 painting. 



The place of aboriginal American pottery could scarcely be better given than 

 in the words of William H. Holmes: 1 



" It is hardly possible to find within the whole range of products of human 

 handicraft a more attractive field of investigation than that offered by aboriginal 

 American ceramics, and probably no one that affords such excellent opportunities 

 for the study of early stages in the evolution of art and especially of the esthetic 

 in art. The early ware of Mediterranean countries has a wider interest in 

 many ways, but it does not cover the same ground. It represents mainly the 

 level of the wheel, of pictorial art, and of writing, while American pottery is 

 entirely below this level, and thus illustrates the substratum out of which the 

 higher phases spring. But it should be noted that not merely the- beginnings of 

 the story are represented in the native work. The culture range is quite wide, 

 and opportunities of tracing progress upward to the very verge of civilization are 



1 Twentieth annual report, Bur. Amer. ethnol., 19, 1898-1899. 



