Pottery of the ancient Pueblos Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 292.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]

Another very excellent example of these bowls is presented in Fig. 292.

It is small and shallow, measuring six and a half inches in diameter and two and a half in depth. The material is somewhat soft and chalky. The walls are thick and the surface is well finished. The painted design is cruciform, like the preceding, but is much more simple and satisfactory.

It is interesting to note the changes rung upon the few simple motives employed in these designs. Again apparently each of the four parts is a fragment of a double border, cut up and fitted into the concave surface.

The bands with oblique, dotted, or stepped lines, Fig. 293, are repet.i.tions of the neck belt of a bottle-shaped vase or basket, and the other bands with their chaste fret-work repeat a section of the body zone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 293.--Painted design.]

Bowls and cups of the hemispherical model are very often supplied with handles. Like other bowls, they are embellished with painted designs derived from vases or from textile sources. In order of evolution, they probably follow the plain form--the handles being added to facilitate use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 294.--Handled bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

The princ.i.p.al varieties of handles have already been described. The bowl ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 294 is furnished with a single semicircular loop. In form, finish, and color it is the same as that of the other bowls, and the painted design has a similar derivation and arrangement.

In the collection we have a fine large red bowl, now in a fragmentary state. It is eleven inches in diameter and six inches deep. A small loop is attached to the outside near the margin. It has a very decided resemblance in color, finish, and ornamentation to the red bowls of the Rio Virgen. The color of both the surface and the ma.s.s is a dull red. A broad band of bright red paint encircles the exterior, leaving a plain marginal band of the ground color and a plain area of the same upon the bottom. The painted design, which covers the inner surface is shown in Fig. 295. We discover in it at first sight a type to all appearances totally distinct from the usual devices of this locality, but a closer study reveals the existence of the favorite motive--the meander--doubled up across the middle in a way to challenge detection, with the ever-present auxiliary band above and below. The curiously complex and very pleasing ornament is amplified in Fig. 296.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 295.--Painted design.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 296.--Original form of painted design.]

One small cup or bowl has two ears, not semicircular, but rectangular, which are placed horizontally and project in sharp points at the corners.

The neat little vessel given in Fig. 297 has a much elongated horizontal loop, carelessly made and rudely attached. The bowl is handsomely finished. The margin is ornamented with a series of closely placed transverse lines or dots, a character appearing more frequently in the northern ware. The interior design is made up of four independent parts as usual.

The cup presented in Fig. 298 serves to ill.u.s.trate another variety of handle--a large vertical loop, extending from rim to base, like those on the upright cups given in Figs. 287 and 288. The paste is very fine grained, and breaks with a conchoidal fracture. The color is gray and the paint reddish from the firing. The bottom is flat, a rare occurrence in the more archaic, pottery. The painted design is based upon the meander, and occupies nearly the entire exterior surface of the cup. The handle has two bird-track shaped figures on its outer surface.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 297.--Handled cup: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 298.--Handled cup: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 299.--Dipper: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

Vessels with long cylindrical handles are distributed over a very extended district, but in Tusayan they are of a better cla.s.s of ware than elsewhere. Here the handles are long and stout and frequently terminate in a loop, probably intended for the attachment of a cord. The bowl is often graceful in form and tasteful in ornament. One of the finer examples is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 299. It is of the chalky ware, and has a very good surface finish. The handle is one inch in diameter and five inches long. It is hollow and terminates in a narrow loop. It is decorated with two groups of spirally inclined lines. The interior decoration of the bowl furnishes a most excellent example of the crucifrm designs previously described. This is well shown in Fig. 300.

The exterior surface is embellished with a most primitive drawing of a bird, Fig. 301--a striking ill.u.s.tration of the pictorial accomplishments of these cla.s.sic decorators. Subjects of this cla.s.s are of rare occurrence upon the ancient white ware.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 300.--Dipper: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 301.--Figure of bird from exterior of dipper.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 302.--Dipper: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

The dipper presented in Fig. 302 is somewhat inferior in workmans.h.i.+p to the preceding example. The handle is plain and terminates in a horizontal loop. The painted design is not arranged about a square, as in the examples given, but leaves a s.p.a.ce in the center of the bowl resembling a four-cornered star. This shape is, however, the result of accident. The four parts are units of an elaborate border, not severed from their original connection, but contorted from crowding into the circular s.p.a.ce. The design drawn upon a plain surface is shown in Fig.

303. Projected in a straight line, as in Fig. 304, it is readily recognized as the lower three-fourths of a zone of scroll ornamentation.

A unit of the design drawn in black is shown in Fig. 305. The meander is developed in the white color of the ground, and consists of two charmingly varied threads running side by side through a field of black, bordered by heavy black lines. The involute ends of the units are connected by two minute auxiliary scrolls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 303.--Painted design.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 304.--Painted design.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 305.--Unit of the design drawn in black.]

Bowls heretofore referred to as heart-shaped are of frequent occurrence in the valley of the Little Colorado. A number have been obtained by the Bureau of Ethnology directly from the Pueblo Indians, while a few very superior specimens are in the collection of Mr. Keam. A somewhat globular example is represented in Fig. 306.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 306.--Heart-shaped bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]

It is remarkable in having four zones of devices. The narrow belt next the lip contains a single line of bird-track figures. The others exhibit simple forms of the meander. It is interesting to notice the variety of treatment. In the upper band we have a chain of units imperfectly connected. In the others there are series of triangular links quite disconnected from each other. All are defined in white by painting in a ground of black.

This district has furnished few vessels of more exquisite form and decoration than that shown in Fig. 307. It is from the Keam collection.

The outlines are exceptionally symmetrical, and the design, developed in the white of the ground, is drawn with more than usual care. The figures are severely simple, however, and comprise but one motive--the typical scroll, which is arranged in three zones, separated by parallel lines.

The s.p.a.ces are filled in with serrate lines, parallel with the connecting fillets or stems of the volutes, as in the case given in Fig.

290.

Another smaller vessel from the same collection is simple and unpretentious, but so thoroughly satisfactory in every respect that one could hardly suggest an improvement. The surface is well polished. The ground color is whitish, and the design--a chain of cla.s.sic scrolls--is produced in white by filling up the interstices with black. It is a noteworthy fact that the base of this cup has been perforated, apparently for use as a strainer. Nearly a hundred small round holes have been made while the clay was still soft. A pottery ladle from this region, now in the National collection, exhibits the same feature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 307.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

I add another example from the Keam collection, Fig. 309. The margins of the figures are serrate and the volutes, which are in white, have clumsy, disconnected stems.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 308.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

The vessel presented in Fig. 310 has a flattened upper surface, an angular shoulder, and a high body, slightly conical below. The painted design is nearly obliterated in places by abrasion or weathering, but is correctly presented in Fig. 311, which gives the three zones in horizontal projection. This brings out a very marked feature, the cruciform arrangement of the parts, which would not be apparent in a vertical projection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 309.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 310.--Bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/2.]

The two inner circles occupy the upper surface of the vessel and the outer one the most expanded portion of the body. The inner belt is separated into four panels or compartments by as many series of transverse lines, the panels being filled in with longitudinal, broken lines. The second band is also divided by four series of straight lines, but the compartments are occupied by scrolls in white, bordered by serrate wings in black. The outer band exhibits a very curious combination of features, the whole figure, however, being based upon the meander. It is probable that the grouping in fours is accidental, the division of a surface into four being much more readily accomplished than into any other number above two.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 311.--Painted design.]

There are few better examples of the skill and good taste of the ancient potter than the bowl ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 312. The body is much flattened and the incurved margin considerably depressed. The color is reddish, both on the surface and in the ma.s.s, while the upper part is painted a bright red. Upon this color, encircling the shoulder and extending inward toward the lip, is a handsome design in black and white lines.

This is nearly obliterated, but enough is left to show that it consists of a highly elaborated rectilinear meander pattern, the idea being developed apparently in the light ground color. The painted lines are in black bordered with fine white stripes--a common occurrence in the south.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 312.--Red bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

We have in the Museum an exquisitely shaped vessel of this cla.s.s obtained from the Zuni Indians. The material and color are identical with the red specimen from Saint George. The whole surface is painted red and a neat border design in black is worked over this. The lip is not so much depressed as in the preceding examples. Two perforations occur near the margin, through which the Zunis have pa.s.sed a buckskin thong. Another plain bowl is very much compressed vertically.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 313.--Oblong bowl: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

Oblong bowls are not a prominent feature in Pueblo pottery. A few examples were found at Saint George, Utah, but these are of the shallow variety. The only oblong bowl with incurved rim yet sent in is shown in Fig. 313. It is six inches long and four inches wide. The ornamentation consists of three lines of meanders, that upon the flat upper surface being irregular and not continuous.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 314.--Globular vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]

In Fig. 314 we see another variation from the two usual forms of bowls.

This vessel is globular, and the aperture quite large. Two small nodes attached to the sides and vertically perforated serve as handles. The ornamentation consists of a number of disconnected and greatly varied bands of meandered lines and figures, obliquely placed. The ornamented surface is separated into two parts by vertical panels at the handles.

This affords a suggestion, of an advent.i.tious or mechanical origin for the vertical bands which are so prominent a feature in modern Pueblo pottery. One of these is partially visible at the right side in the cut.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 315.--Vase: Province of Tusayan.--1/3.]