THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE RED ROCK COUNTRY. 587 



The ancient artists of Sikyatki recognized the flower as a decorative 

 element, but strangely enough, overlooked the leaf, which later came, 

 through foreign influence, to play such an important part in ornamental 

 possibilities. I find no instance- in all decorations of the adaptation 

 of leaves to the adornment of ceramic productions by the Tusayan 

 ancients. 



Of strange conceptions, none are more foreign to Aryan habits of 

 thought than that of a feathered rainbow, but such a tenacious hold had 

 this on the ancient potters of Sikyatki that they reproduced it in figures 

 in many of their pictures. 



Geometrical figures form by far the majority of decorative elements 

 of the ancieut pottery of Sikyatki. We have the key and terrace pat- 

 terns, spirals, frets, and scrolls. In their artistic productions, all the 

 elements of crosshatching, rectangular figures, stars, and circles, were 

 made to contribute to the ornamentation of their ceramics. Many of 

 these passed into conventional symbols, many were purely decorative, 

 but all testify the degree of artistic feeling which the ancient potters 

 of this town possessed. As works of esthetic feeling no less than 

 objects of scientific interest, the revelations of the Sikyatki cemeteries 

 are of greatest importance in the history of the evolution of geometrical 

 ornament. 



Many of the encircling bands decorating vases and food basins are 

 broken at one point in their course. This break, ordinarily called the 

 line of life, is found in ancient pottery from the mounds of the Gila and 

 Salt rivers in southern Arizona, and is common in old Cibolan ware. 

 Its meaning is symbolic, and probably the same as in modern ware as 

 pointed out by others. 



Many of the food basins and some vases have parallel bars drawn at 

 intervals exteriorly on the rims or lips. These lines, two or three in 

 number, are sometimes so arranged as to form the letter H and recall 

 similar lines, four in number, made with sacred meal on the fuor walls 

 of a room during certain secret rites. This mode of decoration was 

 likewise a widespread one in ancient pueblo pottery, and is at times 

 followed by modern potters. 



Of encircling lines, none are more problematical, from the point of 

 view of interpretation, than those with bars or dots at intervals, so 

 common on the exterior of many food basins. While distinctly con- 

 ventional, these decorative elements have a deeper symbolic meaning, 

 which would require many pages to elaborate. 



The character and decoration of pottery from the two ruins, Awatobi 

 and Sikyatki, are very close to each other, and markedly different from 

 modern ware still manufactured at Hano and Walpi, only 3 miles dis- 

 tant from the latter ruin. These characteristics of resemblance are 

 common features of all ancient Tusayan ceramics. In other words, 

 modern pottery has greatly deteriorated, old decorative motifs have 

 passed out of use, and, what is more significant, new symbolic decorative 



