158 G. F. Eaton — Prehistoric Fauna of Block Island. 



Ancient Pottery. 



Broken pottery was taken from nearly all the shell-heaps 

 and deposits explored, the yield of the Fort Island and Mott 

 Shell-heaps being especially large. No attempt has been made 

 to assemble the broken pieces, comparatively few of which 

 are large enough to indicate the shape of the original vessels. 

 But, so far as may be judged from these fragments, the ordi- 

 nary form of pot had a rounded bottom and curving sides which 

 were drawn in at the rim. A few were given an exceedingly 

 graceful shape by letting the rim flare a little. The thickness 

 of the fragments is from three-eighths to seven-eighths of an 

 inch, and the largest pot had a diameter of fifteen inches. 

 The material is apparently a mixture of clay with a small pro- 

 portion of gravel and pounded oyster shells to make it fire 

 better. The color of the pottery, when not hidden by a thick 

 coating inside and out of soot and decomposed organic matter, 

 is a dull red. It is evident from the grooves on the inside of 

 many of the fragments that the potters frequently made use 

 of large scallop shells which, owing to their bulging form, made 

 excellent finishing tools. The grooves thus traced are very 

 ornamental. That a pot finished in this manner could not be 

 easily cleansed was probably thought of little importance. 



A few fragments bear nearly obliterated lines outside, 

 which resemble to a slight degree the impression of cords, but 

 there is no certain evidence that any pottery was made in 

 basket moulds. On the outside, ornamentation was often pro- 

 duced by scoring the pots with a toothed graining instrument. 

 The result is especially pleasing to the eye when the lines 

 traverse the pot obliquely. In some instances, the pots were 

 first made smooth inside and out, and then some simple decora- 

 tive designs were traced around the rims. One of the simplest 

 designs consists of a triple girdle of dotted lines. Most of the 

 vessels were pierced in three or four places for the passage of 

 supporting cords, and on a few, the intervals between these 

 holes have been marked by series of blind holes. Perhaps 

 the most elaborate decoration is borne by a potsherd, which 

 has its flaring rim ornamented with an oblique indentation. 

 Around the narrowest part of the pot, an inch below the rim, 

 runs a double girdle of dotted lines, close beneath which the 

 holes for support are pierced, and these holes are surrounded 

 by a fanciful fret design of dotted lines. In its form and 

 decoration, this fragment shows that much taste and skill were 

 exercised by the potter. 



