HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



years of work; and among the many thousands of potsherds en- 

 countered, not a fragment of this ware was found, attesting to its 

 rarity and pointing to the fact of its introduction into Copan by 

 trade from some other district. 



The discovery of these vessels aroused the interest of the writer, 

 who forthwith made a study of the geographical distribution of the 

 type represented by them, and a list of the examples to be found in 

 different museums both in America and in Europe, but the results of 

 this study were not published. Since that time, more than twenty years 

 ago, knowledge of the number of specimens of this class of pottery 

 has increased to a considerable extent, but the geographical range of 

 the objects has not been extended. The writer at that time was of 

 the opinion that this class of ceramics had originated in the region 

 of Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala. 



In 1895, Dr Eduard Seler, of the Ethnographical Museum of 

 Berlin, published his essay on the Antiquities of Guatemala, 1 in which 

 he described and illustrated several examples of this ware from the 

 Department of Alta Vera Paz, which he calls enameled ware. Seler 

 draws attention to a vessel of this class found near Progreso, Yucatan, 

 which was first illustrated and described by the learned Archbishop 

 of Yucatan, Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona, 2 in Anales del Museo 

 National de Mexico in 1885, and it is the first specimen of this type 

 to be brought to the attention of the student, so far as the writer is 

 aware. Carrillo y Ancona recognized the peculiar character of the 

 ware, describing it as a "fine enameled pottery". 



In his study of the Guatemala examples in the Berlin Museum, 

 Seler writes: 



These vessels are distinguished from the well-known ancient American 

 pottery by apparently having an actual glaze. ... I have hitherto been unable 

 to determine what kind of glaze is on these vessels, as rare and beautiful pieces 

 were always concerned which could not be sacrificed to chemical investigation. 

 However, there is hope that Mr Holmes, of Chicago, 3 who at present is making a 

 special study of these vessels, will throw light on this question. The broad geo- 

 graphic area within which these pieces are found proves that in them we have to 

 deal with ware which was distributed by trade. 



About the same time Dr Carl Lumholtz obtained for the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History one of the most remarkable speci- 



1 Alterthiimer aus Guatemala, VerSffentlichungen aus dem Koniglichen Museum fur Volker- 

 kunde, Band IV, Heft I; translation published in Bulletin 28, Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 1904, pp. 106-109. 



2 Tomo hi, entrega 7, "Los Cabezas-Chatas," p. 276, three views of vessel on the plate. The 

 study was written in 188 1. 



' At that time Professor Holmes was Curator of Anthropology in the Field Museum of Natural 

 History. 



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