REPORT UPON THE WORK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN 

 ABORIGINAL POTTERY IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR THE 

 YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1886. 



By William H. Holmes, Honorary Curator. 



The department of aboriginal pottery has been enriched daring the 

 year by several very important accessions, numbering- about 1 ,500 entries, 

 but including a much larger number of pieces. In previous years the 

 collections consisted to a large extent of modern products, most of which 

 were derived from the pueblo towns of Xew Mexico and Arizona, but 

 the body of the accessions of this year are prehistoric and represent 

 localities widely distributed. over the American coutinent. 



The agencies through which these acquisitions were made are (1) 

 those of the Xational Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, in- 

 cluding donations, purchases, and the products of origiual research by 

 the agents of these departments, and (2) those of the Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogy through corresponding channels. The bulk of the year's material 

 has been acquired through the agencies of the latter organization. 



From the Mississippi Valley and the more easterly sections of the 

 United States collections were made chiefly by the agents of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, working under the supervision of Dr. Cyrus Thomas. 



They were obtained from mounds, graves, shell heaps, and from the 

 surface of the ground, and include many pieces of the ordinary abo- 

 riginal vases, pipes, etc., mostly of types already well represented in 

 the collection, but of much importance and interest as tilling up gaps 

 in the series. In all there are upwards of 400 numbers. 



From the pueblo country the most important accessions are of the 

 ancient wares of eastern-central Arizona and western-central Xew 

 Mexico, and are the product of excavations made by Mr. E. AY. Xelson. 

 They consist chiefly of vases and fragments of the coiled and white 

 wares of the earliest-known periods of pueblo occupation and exhibit 

 a number of new forms such as are not found farther north. Mr. James 

 Stevenson secured a number of ancient pieces from the province of Tu- 

 sayan. 



The purchase of two collections of Mexican antiquities has added 

 much to the collections of pottery. A small number of pieces come 

 from the valley of Mexico, but the more important accessions are from 

 H. Mis. 170, pt. 2 7 97 



