118 EARTHENWARE OF 



hands and idle fancy. It is quite certain that articles so rude and fragile could have 

 served no purpose in the arts ; that they were not intended for use as utensils is sup- 

 ported by the fact that in most cases the vessels were made perforate. The paste is 

 crude clay so slightly baked that many of the specimens fairly fall to pieces of their 

 own weight. 



The practice of perforating vessels on consigning them to the grave was com- 

 mon along the Gulf coast and across northern Florida, but the making of vessel 

 forms with perforated base has not been observed outside of Florida, and was first 

 made known to anthropologists by Mr. Moore in the American Naturalist. One 

 specimen only of this class, from Franklin County, Florida, is found in the 

 National Museum. 



These pseudo vessels take the form mainly of cups and bowls, some being shal- 

 low and of simple shape, others deep and with incurved or widely expanding mar- 

 gins. Many are eccentric in outline, and the rims are scalloped or triangular, 

 square or oval, and furnished with rude handles and projections of various kinds. 



Fig. 3, PI. Ill, illustrates an average specimen with widely expanding saucer- 

 like rim. The clay is gray and somewhat mottled on the surface and dark within. 

 The rudeness of the work is well expressed in the cut. The perforation in the base, 

 made whilst the clay was still soft, is three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Near 

 the upper margin of the rim on opposite sides are two small perforations apparently 

 for purposes of suspension. Fig. 1, PI. IV, represents an equally rude piece, an ob- 

 long cup with base broken out. It was recovered at a depth of six feet in the 

 mound. 



Fig. 3, PI. IV, illustrates a unique piece also quite rude, but signalized by an 

 incised pattern, a disconnected meander composed of short parallel lines one half an 

 inch apart, the space between being filled in with impressions made by a minutely 

 notched tool about one-half an inch across the edge. In this case the top of the 

 vessel has been partially closed, as shown in the cut. The entire surface of the top 

 is ornamented with scattering impressions of the notched tool mentioned above. 

 The perforation in the bottom is one-half an inch in diameter and was made proba- 

 bly after the top was closed, by punching from below, as the edges of the clay are 

 turned inward. The work is such as might be expected of an aimless dabbler in 

 pottery making. 



The small cup shown in Fig. 2, PI. IV, was found at a depth of fourteen feet 

 in a layer of sand artificially reddened with oxide of iron, and accompanied by many 

 fragments of chert apparently the refuse of arrow making. The rim is pressed in 

 at the four sides and rudely embellished with a border of indentations made with 

 the same tool used in marking the upper surface of the specimen just described. 

 The base has a perforation about three-fourths of an inch in diameter punched from 

 below while the clay was soft ; the edges have been somewhat rounded off as a 

 finish. 



Plate V illustrates four additional pieces of this ware, all being originally per- 

 forate or with bases broken out. In one case the perforation has been cut out with 



