THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. x. — AUGUST, 1876. — No. 8. 
THE ANCIENT POTTERY OF COLORADO, UTAH, ARI- 
ZONA, AND NEW MEXICO. 
BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 
Por the purpose of exploring a comparatively unknown tract 
of country on the Pacific slope, in the far Southwest, sup- 
posed to abound in architectural remains of the ancient Pueblo 
race, a portion of ‘the United States Geological Survey, in 
charge of Professor F. V. Hayden, was dispatched across the 
Rocky Mountains during the summer of 1875. 
Over this vast extent of territory, covering probably two hun- 
dred thousand square miles, are strewn great quantities of broken 
Pottery, which have lain exposed to the atmosphere for many cent- 
uries, and are still, for the most part, in a state of good preserva- 
tion. So perfect, indeed, are many of the specimens, that they 
appear as though they had been molded and shattered to pieces 
but yesterday. This earthenware occurs most abundantly in the 
vicinity of ruins, where it often lies so thickly as to suggest the 
idea, which some archeologists entertain, that such places had 
once been the sites of huge potteries, where the ware had been 
manufactured on a wholesale plan. Upon a superficial obser- 
vation I at first entertained this opinion, but after more careful 
_ and extensive investigations I discovered this to be erroneous. 
S When we consider the fact that tons of this fragmentary crock- 
ery are scattered over hundreds of miles of this mesa country, it 
Would seem as if some method had been employed for turning, 
™ great numbers of vessels by the agency of machinery ; yet 
We ascertain that this was not the case, but that each piece had 
bi al fashioned by the hands of the work-women, and it seems 
Sy probable that the inmates of each ancient household were 
orui potters. The employment of the plastic art was such 
Teral necessity that every family over this broad land con- 
Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 
