HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



represent geometric patterns on two of the best black-and-white 

 vessels. No effigy vases were found, and no life forms depicted. 



On the whole, no distinctly characteristic design appears on 

 ceramic objects from this ruin. The best specimen is a vase (pi. viii, a) , 

 found in Kiva B. This vase has a circular cover and contained a 

 desiccated lizard and a cake of common salt. A small black-and-white 

 food bowl (b) has two footprints painted on the inside. 



The designs on pottery from Oak-tree House are practically the 

 same as those on bowls and vases from other sections of the culture 

 area to which the Mesa Verde belongs. Similar geometric figures occur 



Fig. 5. — Design on inside of bowl shown in plate vm, b. 



on earthenware from ruins along the Animas, near Aztec, in the Chaco 

 and Chelly canons, on the McElmo and its tributaries, and elsewhere. 

 As a whole the symbolism of the Mesa Verde pottery is simple (figs. 

 4, 5) and is not to be compared with that of the Sikyatki or the 

 Mimbres ware, which, from the pictorial point of view, is highly 

 differentiated. As a rule cliff-dwelling pottery belongs to the oldest 

 forms of ware, the smooth decorated specimens closely resembling 

 those from the single-house or pre-Pueblo epoch. Nevertheless, it is 

 well made and beautifully decorated. The majority of the whole pieces 

 are mortuary in character. Sherds of many vessels were taken from 

 one of the rooms at the western end of the ruin ; among these, coiled 

 and indented ware was more abundant than painted fragments. The 

 presence of red-ware sherds among the black-and-white is quite in 

 keeping with what is known of Mesa Verde pottery, which is mainly 

 made up of earthenware of these two kinds. No whole piece of red 

 ware was found at Oak-tree House. 



The forms of the indented type of pottery are identical with those 

 elsewhere recorded from the Mesa Verde. Of this type vases and 



[no] 



