1887] Conventionalism in Ancient American Art. ' 713 
CONVENTIONALISM IN ANCIENT AMERICAN 
A 
BY J. S. KINGSLEY. 
3 es paper recently published by Prof. F. W. Putnam, under 
the above title," is a nice piece of archeological and artistic 
research. The complete paper is a short one, the points being 
brought out by the illustrations rather than by the description in 
the text, of which the following is a rather full abstract.. Jt is, 
however, but just to say that the full series of illustrations eluci- 
date the points far more completely than the few which are 
reproduced here. 
The evolution of the ceramic art itself is an oft-told tale—— 
first, the clay-lined basket, and, last, the potter’s wheel. The 
ordinary savage ornament is also well known; but occasionally 
one runs across, even in the pottery of the American aborigines, 
examples where the potter has the true artistic spirit. He has 
first taken a realistic representation of some familiar form, and 
adapted it to the vessel in hand. In course of time, as Professor 
Putnam says, as art increased power of expression, it progressed 
beyond mere realism and led to the representation of an object 
: by certain conventional characters, without that close adherence 
to nature which was at first necessary to a clear understanding 
of the idea which was intended to be conveyed. Our author 
was led toa study of this conventionalism by the long series of 
_ pottery contained in the Museum of American Archzology and 
Ethnology at Cambridge, from the stone graves of the Cumber- 
land Valley, in Tennessee, and the burial mounds of Missouri _ 
and Arkansas. The extent of these collections can be realized 
when it is said that they were derived from over six thousand of 
the stone graves and almost innumerable mounds, all examined 
in the most thorough and scientific manner. This study led to 
an examination of the other pottery in the museum, and it was 
found that a similar conventionalism was wide-spread, though not 
= universal, and that similar artistic results by no means implied 
_ Community of descent or even contact of the tribes. 
To illustrate the points involved, we would first call attention 
* Bulletin of the Essex Institute, vol. xviii., 1887. 
