THE ANCIENT BASKET MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN UTAH 
Some were storage baskets in which seeds were kept, perhaps 
for the next season’s planting. One of them contains pifion gum, 
which was their paste and glue. With this gum they mended 
their broken vessels and made their baskets water-tight, as may 
be seen by the olla-bottomed basket represented in the plate. 
This little water bottle is filled with pumpkin seeds and the 
covering of gum has rendered it water-tight. 
Another form of basket that may be considered under this 
class is shown on page 25. It is more like a yucca bag than a 
basket, and yet it is made in the same way as are the other yucca 
productions. It is really a small storage basket and it is here 
shown filled with shelled corn while about it are scattered ears of 
corn. This basket and corn were found in a pot-hole in a cave 
and were no doubt cached in this place for future use. Near 
the basket just described and leaning against the back of the case 
Mortar is a Specimen that is evidently a mortar basket. It is 
Basket. thirteen inches in diameter and three and one-half 
inches deep. The interior is coated with meal and the surface 
of the coils is worn as though from blows of a pestle or grinder. 
The home of the mortar basket is in California and, should future 
investigations show that this form of basket was used by the 
ancient people of Utah, it will mark the eastern limit of the type, 
so far as known. 
Much more might be said concerning these interesting objects. 
Those that have been noted are worthy of a detailed descriptionand 
therearemorethan fifty others in thiscasethat must be passed with- 
out even mention. The collection as a unit may be studied with 
the help of this introduction, which will prepare the student for 
more specific information regarding the arts of the Basket Makers. 
Notre.—The various types of baskets mentioned in this description of the 
remains of the pre-historic inhabitants of south-eastern Utah are also to be seen 
in the basketry of the Indian tribes now inhabiting California and other parts 
of the western United States, examples of which are on exhibition in the West 
hall, ground floor; and in that of the natives of British Columbia, Alaska and 
the Aleutian islands, as exhibited in the North hall, ground floor. Inasmuch 
as the same design expresses different ideas when used by different tribes, it is 
well for the reader to bear in mind the point made clear in the text by the 
author of this Leaflet, that the interpretation offered here for the designs on 
the pre-historic baskets is wholly conjectural.—EpITor. 
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