a 
DA r 
458 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [August, 
the ruins of Utah, by one of the members of the United States 
Geological Survey. It was a combination of a handle and the 
neck of a jug. (Plate VII., Figure 8.) Across the middle of the 
opening of the vessel extended a hollow clay tube, separating the 
mouth into two divisions. Through this a thong was passed, by 
which the jug was carried or suspended from the walls of the 
house. Plate VIII., Figures 3-8, represents some common forms 
of handles, the straight ones (Figures 6-8) being the most 
numerous, though usually the most fragmentary. Plate VIII., 
Figure 5, represents a handle made of three twisted rolls. 
The material of the pottery of the aborigines consists of an 
infusible mixture of clay, which, after burning, is still opaque. 
There is always a great percentage of silicious earth, which is 
increased as the vessel is designed to be firm or less liable to 
shrink or crack on exposure to heat. Pulverized flint or quartz 
was probably much used in the ancient pottery. Captain John 
Moss states that he was informed by some of the Moquinos of 
Arizona that the older glazed pottery was made from a certain 
species of white rock, pulverized and worked into a paste, but 
the modern people have never been able to discover from whence 
the material was obtained. If such was the case, the process is 
now one of the lost arts of the Moqui, Zuiii, and Pueblo tribes. 
It is probable that this ancient ware was made from pounded 
quartz, but the descendants of these old potters employ only 
what is at hand, that is, ordinary clay. The calcareous covering 
of mollusks could not have been used unless they were more 
abundant in those days than they now are. : 
The painting of the ware was accomplished before burning, and 
then the glaze was administered. The colors were made by pie 
verizing brilliant stones and earths.! Those used in ornament 
ing the glazed crockery were black, white, yellow, brown, and 
red; and I have picked up pieces which presented greenish oF 
purplish tints, although these may be accounted for by the fad- 
ing of the coloring. The pigment was administered to the vessel 
before baking, and frequently the action of heat might hay? 
altered the chemical nature of the original hues. The glazing 
« Professor Cox 
ng the 
Mr. Foster, in his Prehistoric Races of the United States, says, ’ 
was informed that the New Mexican Indians colored their pottery black by us! 
gum of the mezquite, which has much the appearance and properties of gum 
and then baking it. Much of the ancient pottery from the Colorado 
of the Prairies, says that this pottery was also colored with the j 
called guaco. . 
