Part 3 (1/2)
Following the customs of most primitive peoples, the belongings of the deceased were buried with them. Earthen vessels were found in profusion.
With a single body, there were sometimes as many as eight vases, the children having been in this respect more highly favored than the adults. There seems to have been no system in the arrangement either of the bodies or of the accompanying relics.
The majority of the vases were either plain or decorated in color, but many of the larger specimens were of the coiled variety. About sixty vessels were recovered. Those of the former cla.s.ses will be described under their proper headings.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 241.--Vessel from the tumulus, at Saint George.--1/3.]
The shapes of the corrugated vases are of the simplest kind. The prevailing form corresponds very closely with the Cliff House specimen ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 239. One unusually large example was brought back in fragments, but has since been successfully restored. It stands nearly seventeen inches high and is sixteen inches in diameter. The plain part of the rim is one and one-half inches wide, and the lip is well rounded and strongly recurved. The lines are quite graceful, the neck expanding below into a globular body which is just a little pointed at the base.
The color is dark, from use over the fire. The fillets of clay were narrow and very neatly crimped. Roughly estimated, there were at least three hundred feet of the coil used. The vessel has a capacity of about ten gallons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 242.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/2.]
Vases of this particular outline may be found, varying in size from these grand proportions to small cups an inch or two in height. Of a somewhat different type is the vessel shown in Fig. 241. The outline is symmetrical. The neck is comparatively high and wide and swells out gently to the widest part of the body, the base being almost hemispherical. A band about the neck is coiled and roughly indented, while the body is quite smooth. The plain band about the mouth is broad and sharply recurved. The coils are wide and deeply indented. They have been smoothed down somewhat while the clay was still soft. The vase shown in Fig. 242 is characterized by its upright rim, elongated neck, round body, and plain broad coils. The fillets are set one upon another, apparently without the usual imbrication. This latter feature occurs in a number of cases in the vessels of this locality.
The bottle given in Fig. 243 is quite comely in shape. The neck expands gracefully from the rim to its junction with the body, which swells out abruptly to its greatest fullness. The coil is not neatly laid. The indentation began with the coil, but was almost obliterated on the lower part of the vessel while the clay was yet soft. The fillets are not so well smoothed down on the interior surface as usual, a ridged appearance being the result. This comes from the difficulty of operating within a much restricted aperture. The color is gray, with a few effective clouds of black, the result of firing. Another, of similar form, was taken from the collection by unknown persons.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 243.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/2.]
The only example of coiled ware from this locality having a handle is a small mug. Its body is shaped much like the larger vessels, but it is less regular in outline. The single vertically placed handle, now partially broken away, was attached to the side of the body near the top, and consisted of a rough cord of clay less than half an inch in diameter. The Saint George tumulus furnished a number of vessels with smooth, unpainted surfaces, very similar in form and size to the coiled vessels. They are generally blackened by use over fire, and, like the large coiled pots, were evidently used for culinary purposes. A few smaller vessels of the same style of finish exhibit forms characteristic of the painted ware, as will be seen by reference to the ill.u.s.trations of these two groups.
From the same source we have two bowls of especial interest, as they have coiled exteriors and polished and painted interiors. One of these is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 244. They form an important link between the two varieties of ware, demonstrating the fact that both styles belong to the same age and to the same people. A similar bowl, found in possession of the Zuni Indians, is ill.u.s.trated in another part of this paper, Fig.
254. Another was obtained at Moki. Fragments of identical vessels are found occasionally throughout the whole Pueblo district. One piece from the San Juan Valley has figures painted upon the coiled exterior surface, the interior being polished and unpainted. Specimens from the vicinity of Springerville, Arizona, have designs in white painted over the coiled surface. A large number of well-made, hemispherical bowls from this locality have a coiled band about the exterior margin, but are otherwise plain and well polished. Some are brownish or reddish in color. Many of them have been used over the fire.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 244.--Bowl with coiled exterior and painted interior: Saint George.--1/2.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 245.--Vase from Parowan, Utah.--1/2.]
The ceramic remains of Utah present some puzzling features. As we go north from the Rio Virgen there is an apparent gradation from the typical Pueblo ware to a distinct group characteristic of Salt Lake Valley. The interesting problems suggested by this condition of things cannot be discussed in this place, and I will stop only to present a specimen of the coiled ware from Parowan, which is in some respects the finest example known. The form, so far as it is preserved, seems unusually graceful, and the laying and indenting of the coil is surprisingly perfect. This vase is in the Salt Lake Museum, and the cut, Fig. 245, is made from a photograph furnished by Prof. Marcus E. Jones.
Vessels with similar finish have recently been obtained from graves at Fillmore, Utah, by Dr. H. C. Yarrow, and, singularly enough, identical work is seen in some very fine pieces obtained by Mr. Nelson from ruined pueblos in middle eastern Arizona.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 246.--Cup from central Utah.--1/3.]
An interesting little cup, said to have been found in central Utah, ill.u.s.trates some of the peculiar characters of the more northern examples of this ware. The vessel has apparently been built with coils, as usual, but the surface is worked over in such a way as to obscure the spiral ridges. The rim is upright and plain. The high, wide neck has a series of narrow, vertical flutings, made with a round-pointed implement, or possibly with the finger tip. A band of four channels encircles the middle of the body, the lower part of which is covered with oblique markings.
The handle is large and round, and is attached above to the top of the rim, and below to the middle of the body. This cup is now in the museum at Salt Lake. The photograph from which the engraving is made was obtained through Professor Jones.
DISTRICT OF THE LITTLE COLORADO.
The region now inhabited by the Pueblo tribes seems to have been a favorite residence of the ancient peoples. Ruins and remains of ceramic art may be found at every turn, and it is a common thing to find ancient vessels in possession of the Pueblo Indians. This is especially true of the Zunis and Mokis, from whom considerable collections have been obtained. These vessels have apparently been culled from the sites of ancient ruins, from cave and cliff-houses, and possibly in some cases from burial places. Recently, since they have become valuable in trade, the country about Moki has been ransacked by both Indians and whites, and many valuable specimens have been acquired.
Within recent years a number of expeditions have been sent into this region. To these the canons and cliffs have yielded many specimens. Both Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Victor Mindeleff have brought in excellent examples, a few of which have already been ill.u.s.trated in the publications of the Bureau of Ethnology. I must not fail to mention the very extensive collection of Mr. T. V. Keam and his a.s.sociate, Mr. John Stephen, examples from which I am permitted to ill.u.s.trate in this paper.
Most of the pieces described by Mr. Stevenson are small and not at all pleasing in appearance. They comprise ollas and handled mugs of an elongated scrotoid or sack shape, the widest part of the body being, as a rule, near the base, while the upper part is elongated into a heavy neck, to which a recurved rim has been added.
A number of examples, ill.u.s.trated in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, were obtained from the Zuni Indians, and are thought by Mr. Stevenson to have come from the Canon de Ch.e.l.ly.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 247.--Vessel from Zuni.--1/4.]