Chapter 2

MATERIAL.--The material employed was usually a moderately fine-grained clay, tempered, in a great majority of cases, with pulverized shells. The shells used were doubtless obtained from the neighboring rivers. In many of the vessels the particles are large, measuring as much as one-fourth or even one-half of an inch in width, but in the more elegant vases the shell has been reduced to a fine powder. Powdered potsherds were also used. The clay was, apparently, often impure or loamy. It was, probably, at times, obtained from recent alluvial deposits of the bayous--the sediment of overflows--as was the potter's clay of the Nile. There is no reason for believing that the finer processes of powdering and levigation were known. A slip or wash of very finely comminuted clay was sometimes applied to the surface of the vessel. The walls of the vessels are often thick and uneven, and are always quite porous, a feature of no little importance in the storage of drinking-water, but one resulting from accident rather than from design.

COLOR.--The paste of this ware presents two marked varieties of color, a dark and a light hue. In a majority of cases it is dark, ranging from a rich black to all shades of brown and gray. The lighter tints are usually warm ochrey grays, rarely approaching reddish or terra-cotta hues. It is highly probable that the differences of color were, to some extent, intentionally produced, and that the material or methods of firing were regulated in a way to produce one tint or another at pleasure. This theory is confirmed by the fact that certain forms of vases are pretty generally dark, while certain other forms are as uniformly light--the latter in nearly all cases being used for the application of color, or of designs in color.

FORM.--This ware exhibits a great variety of forms, many of which are extremely pleasing. In this respect it is far superior to the other prehistoric groups of the eastern United States. The shapes are as varied and elegant as those of the ancient Pueblo pottery, but are inferior to those of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. They take a higher rank than the prehistoric wares of central and northern Europe, but as a matter of course lack the symmetry and refinement of outline that characterize the wheel-made wares of Mediterranean countries.

As I classify by form farther on, and discuss the origin of form as each form-group is presented, I shall not make further reference to this topic here.

FINISH.--The finish, as compared with the work of civilized nations, is rude. The surface is often simply hand or trowel smoothed. Generally, however, it was more or less carefully polished by rubbing with an implement of stone, shell, bone, or other suitable substance, the markings of these tools being distinctly visible. Nothing resembling a glaze has been found on pieces known to be ancient. The surface was sometimes washed or coated with a slip or film of fine clay which facilitated the polishing, and in very many cases a coat of thick red ocher was applied.

ORNAMENT.--The ancient potter of the middle province has taken especial delight in the embellishment of his wares, and the devices used are varied and interesting. They include, first, fanciful modifications of form; second, relief ornament; third, intaglio figures; and, fourth, designs in color.

_Modification of shape_.--It can hardly be claimed that the ancient peoples of this region had a very refined appreciation of elegance of outline, yet the simple, essential forms of cups and pots were by no means satisfactory to them. There are many modifications of shape that indicate a taste for higher types of beauty, and a constant attempt to realize them. The æsthetic sentiment was considerably developed.

There is also a decided tendency toward the grotesque. To such an extreme have the dictates of fancy been followed, in this respect, that utility, the true office of the utensil, has often taken a secondary place, although it is never lost sight of entirely. Bowls have been fashioned into the shapes of birds, fishes, and reptiles, and vases and bottles into a multitude of animal and vegetable forms without apparent regard to convenience. All of these modifications of essential forms were doubtless looked upon as, in a sense, ornamental. So far as I can determine they were in no case intended to be humorous.

_Relief ornament._--Decorative ideas of a purely conventional character are often worked out in both low and salient relief. This is generally accomplished by the addition of nodes and fillets of clay to the plain surfaces of the vessel. Fillets are applied in various ways over the body, forming horizontal, oblique, and vertical bands or ribs. When placed about the rim or base, these fillets are often indented with the finger or an implement in a way to imitate, rudely, a heavy twisted cord--a feature evidently borrowed from basketry. Nodes are likewise attached in various ways to the neck and body of the vessel. In some cases the entire surface of the larger vessels is varied by pinching up small bits of the clay between the nails of the fingers and thumb. An implement is sometimes used to produce a similar result.

_Intaglio designs._--The æsthetic tendencies of these potters are well shown by their essays in engraving. They worked with points upon both the plastic and the sun-dried clay, as well as at times upon the fire-baked surface. Figures thus produced exhibit a wide range of artistic achievement. They illustrate all stages of progress from the most archaic type of ornament--the use of dots and straight lines--to the most elegant combinations of curves; and, finally, to the delineation of life forms and fanciful conceptions.

Generally, when a blunt implement is employed, the line is produced by a movement that I shall call _trailing_, in contradistinction to _incision_, in which a sharp point is used, and _excision_ or _excavation_, which is more easily accomplished with the end of a hollow reed or bone. _Impressed_ or _stamped_ ornament is of rare occurrence, and anything like _repoussée_ work is practically unknown. The practice of impressing cords and fabrics was common among many of the northern tribes, and nets have been used in the manufacture and ornamentation of vases at many points within this province. The use of stamps, especially prepared, was in vogue in most of the Gulf States, and to a limited extent in northern localities.

_Designs in color._--The colors used in painting are white, red, brown, and black, and have generally consisted of thick, opaque, clayey paste, white or colored with ochers. Occasionally the colors used seem to have been mere stains. All were probably laid on with coarse brushes of hair, feathers, or vegetable fiber. The figures are in most cases simple, and are applied in broad, bold lines, indicative of a strong talent for decoration. The forms are, to a great extent, curvilinear, and embrace meanders, scrolls, circles, and combinations and groupings of curved lines in great variety. Of rectilinear forms, lozenges, guilloches, zigzags, and checkers are best known.

The decided prevalence of curved forms is worthy of remark. With all their fertility of invention, the inhabitants of this valley seem never to have achieved the rectangular linked meander, or anything more nearly approaching it than the current scroll or the angular guilloche, while other peoples, such as the Pueblos of the Southwest and the ancient nations of Mexico and Peru found in it a chief resource. The reasons for this, as well as for other peculiarities of the decorative art of the mound-builders as embodied in pottery, must be sought for in the antecedent and coëxistent arts of these tribes. These peoples were certainly not highly accomplished in the textile arts, nor had they felt the influence of advanced architecture such as that of Mexico. The influence of such arts inevitably gives rise to angular geometric figures. Taken as a whole, the remains of the mound-builders would seem to point to a hyperborean origin for both the people and their arts.

The origin of decorative ideas, the processes by which they are acquired by the various arts, and their subsequent mutations of form and significance are matters of the greatest interest, and a separate paper will be devoted to their consideration.

CLASSIFICATION OF FORMS.--Form cannot be made a satisfactory basis of classification, yet within a given group of products, defined by general characters, a classification by shape will be found to facilitate description. In making such a classification we must distinguish essential from non-essential features, that is to say, for example, that bowls must be placed with bowls, bottles with bottles, etc., disregarding the various fanciful modifications given to rims, necks, and bodies for the sake of embellishment. To recognize these adventitious features, which are almost infinite in variety, would be to greatly embarrass form classification.

There is also another difficulty in the employment of form in classification--the nomenclature is very imperfect. We cannot use Greek names, as our forms correspond in a very few instances only with the highly developed forms known to classic art. Our own plain terms, although defective, are better and far more appropriate. All necessary correlations of form can readily be made when the comparative study of the pottery of the world is undertaken.

If we take a full set of these primitive vessels and arrange them in the order of increasing complexity we have an unbroken series ranging from the simplest cup to the high-necked bottle with perforated foot or with tripod. A partial series is shown in the upper line, Fig 361. A multitude of variations from these outlines are found, a few of which are suggested in the lower line.

Compound, eccentric, and life forms are given elsewhere.

In deciding upon the order of arrangement for the various form groups, I shall be governed by what appears to be the natural order of evolution--a progress from simple to complex. First then we have basin-like vessels, such as _dishes_, _cups_, and _bowls_. Second, vases with wide mouths and somewhat globular bodies, the larger of which would be very generally recognized as _pots_. Third, vases with full bodies and narrow mouths, such as are often termed _jars_, but which are as properly called bottles. Fourth, vessels with high, narrow necks, universally denominated _bottles_. Vessels that cannot be grouped with either of these classes will have to be described in sub-groups, arranged in the order of their complexity or importance.

ORIGIN OF FORM.--The derivation and subsequent mutations of form will be treated somewhat in detail as the various forms come up, and a subsequent paper will dwell upon the topic at considerable length.

BOWLS.

Basin or bowl-shaped vessels exhibit great diversity of shape and ornament. In size they range from less than one inch in diameter and depth to more than twenty inches in diameter and a foot in depth. In color and finish they are uniform with vessels of the other classes. Their uses were doubtless chiefly domestic.

FORM.--The forms are greatly varied, as will be seen in Fig. 362. Many are simply segments of spheres and vary from a shallow saucer to a hollow perforated globe. Others have elongated, compressed, or conical bodies, with round or flattened bases. Rectangular and irregular forms are sometimes found. Stands and legs are but rarely attached, and handles, excepting those of a grotesque character, are exceptional.

It will probably be safe to assume that some form of shallow vessel--a dish, cup, or bowl, was the first artificial form produced. Such a vessel would be most easily fashioned in clay and may have been suggested by accident, or by natural or artificial vessels.

Whatever the origin or whichever the method of construction, the difficulties encountered would at first prevent the manufacture of other than the simplest forms.

ORNAMENT.--The ornamentation of bowls was accomplished in a variety of ways. These have been already described in a general way, under the head of ornament. Rim modifications constitute an important feature. The margin or lip may be square, oblique, round, or grooved, as indicated in Fig. 363 _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_. The scallop may be employed as in _e_ and _f_, and relief ornament may be added, such as fillets and nodes, and various horizontal projections, as shown in the second line, Fig. 363, to say nothing of incised lines and indentations, which are the heritage of wicker-work.

Not satisfied with these simple ideas of decoration, the fancy of the potter led him to add embellishments of most varied and often of extraordinary character. The nodes and ridges have been enlarged and prolonged, and fashioned into a thousand natural and fanciful forms. Shells, fish, birds, beasts, human and impossible creatures have been utilized in a multitude of ways. Many illustrations of these are given on subsequent pages.

The body of the bowl is somewhat less profusely ornamented than the rim. The interior, as well as the exterior, has received painted, relieved, and intaglio designs. In the painted ones the favorite idea for the interior is a series of volutes, in broad lines, radiating from the center of the basin. Groups of festooned lines, either painted or engraved, and arranged to give the effect of imbricate scales, form also a favorite motive. The exterior surface of the incurved rims of globular vessels offers a tempting surface to the artist and is often tastefully decorated in all the styles.

ILLUSTRATIONS.--_Ordinary forms._--I have not thought it necessary to present many cuts of simple undecorated vessels, as their shapes are repeated numberless times in elaborated forms. The crude examples teach nothing as to stage of culture. They are of the same time and people as the finer specimens.

The small bowl given in Fig. 364 is unusually well made, and is peculiar in having its interior surface decorated with a rather chaste incised design consisting of festooned lines. This was a favorite idea with the ancient potters and may be seen on both exterior and interior surfaces of a variety of vessels. The rim is beveled on the inner edge and has a beaded or indented fillet encircling the outer margin. The bottom is somewhat flattened. This specimen is from Arkansas.

In Fig. 365 we have a good example of the dark, nicely-finished ware of Arkansas. The widely expanding rim is neatly scalloped on the margin and is finished on the inside with a pattern of incised lines. These lines appear to have been engraved in the hardened clay. The form is rendered graceful by a shallow encircling depression or groove at the base of the rim. The bottom is somewhat flattened.

Occasionally we find very deep bowls with sloping sides and flat bottoms resembling our common flower pots. One example from Arkansas is seven inches in diameter at the top and four at the base, and five inches deep. A heavy band of clay has been added to the outer margin of the rim, leaving a channel above and beneath. A number of perforations occur in this rim, as if made for the passage of thongs or filaments. A similar specimen of larger dimensions may be seen in the National Museum.

We have a number of bowls with incurved rims. This form is more characteristic of the south and is common along the Gulf coast.

A very small example is shown in Fig. 366. The lower part of the body is nearly hemispherical while the rim contracts slightly, giving a rather graceful outline. The exterior is embellished with a simple figure consisting of four linked scrolls which have been traced with a blunt point in the moist clay.

A much larger vessel resembling the above in shape is given in Fig. 367. It is of the dark brownish shell-tempered ware, characteristic of Arkansas. The lip is much incurved and the base considerably flattened, so that the form is that of a greatly compressed oblate spheroid. The outer surface has been moderately well polished, and is ornamented in a very effective manner by a series of figures, outlined by incised lines, alternate spaces being filled in with minute punctures.

A favorite form is a bowl with full deep body and incurved lip. A vessel of this class is illustrated in Fig. 368. The rim is but slightly incurved, while the body is considerably constricted below the greatest circumference. It is a unique and handsome specimen. The color of the slip is a pale, reddish-gray, a little darker than an ordinary flesh tint. The paste is seen to be yellowish where the surface has been injured. The ornament is a simple meander, consisting of three incised lines. It is said to have been found in Arkansas. Other bowls of like form and of elegant finish are found in the collection. They are generally dark in color, and have large apertures, low walls and flattened bases. The meander, mostly in its more simple forms, is the favorite decoration.

There are many red vessels of the class under consideration, but the majority are less contracted at the aperture and thus are somewhat pot-shaped. They are rather rudely constructed and finished, and but for the color, would seem to be intended for ordinary cooking purposes. I observe in a number of cases that circular medallion-like ornaments have been set around the rim. These are from one-half to one inch in diameter, and are generally perforated or punctured in two or three places, apparently with the idea of representing a face. The effect is very much like that of the small perforated disks, riveted upon the exterior of copper or tin kettles for the purpose of attaching handles. Occasionally a tail-like appendage is added to the under side of these discoidal heads, suggesting the tadpole figures upon the sacred water vessels of the Pueblo Indians.

One large basin with slightly incurved rim has a series of triangular figures in red and brown upon both the inner and the outer surfaces. It is rudely finished and of large size, being eleven inches in diameter and seven and a half in height.

_Eccentric forms._--Before proceeding with the discussion of life-forms as exhibited in bowls, I must present a few unique shapes.

These consist of ladle-shaped vessels, and of bowls or basins with rectangular, oval, or unsymmetrical outlines. Ladles are of rare occurrence. In the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology I have illustrated the best example that has come to my notice. The Davenport collection contains but one specimen--a rude shallow cup with a short thick handle. The form suggests the wooden and horn spoons of the modern tribes and may have originated in their archaic prototypes.

Fig. 369 illustrates a minute cup rudely made of coarse clay. The outline is oval and slightly pointed at one end, as if intended for pouring liquids.

In Fig. 370 we have another small vessel of rude finish with two pointed lips. A much larger vessel of similar shape may be seen in the Davenport collection. The projecting pointed lip is rarely found in aboriginal pottery, although I see no reason why such a feature may not readily have been suggested to the savage by the prolonged margins of his vessels of shell.

Rectangular vessels are of the rude shell-tempered ware, and, although rare, are widely distributed.

Fig. 371 illustrates a specimen from Pecan Point, Arkansas. The surface is rudely finished and without polish. The color is a dark gray, much flecked with large particles of white shell. Another example has a square rim but a rounded bottom, and is covered with a coat or slip of dark red clay.

A small vessel from the same region as the preceding has the rim pressed in on the four sides, leaving sharp, projecting corners.

One of the most notable vessels in the collection is illustrated in Fig. 372. It is a heavy casket consisting of two parts, body and lid, and is made as usual of clay and coarsely pulverized shell. It is brownish gray in color and bears some marks of the baking. It was obtained by Captain W. P. Hall from a low mound at Hale's Point, Tennessee, and is described by Mr. W. H. Pratt, in the following language: "It is of rude, irregular, quadrangular form, made in two parts. The lower, or case proper, is 12 inches long, 7 inches wide, and 5 inches deep, inside measure, the upper edge being slightly bent inward all around. The upper part or lid is of similar form and dimensions, being very slightly larger, so as to close down over the other part, about one and a half inches, and is somewhat more shallow. As the lid does not fit very perfectly, the joint around the edge had been plastered up with clay. When found, it contained the remains of a very small child reduced to dust, except that some of the bones of the skull, jaws, and limbs retained their form, crumbling rapidly, however, upon removal and exposure to the air. There were also found two or three dozen small shell beads. Excepting the remains described, the case was entirely empty. The case weighs six and a quarter, and the lid just six pounds." This is one of the very few vessels that would seem to have been constructed especially for mortuary purposes.

I wish to add to the list of eccentric forms a singular example from the collection of J. R. Thibault, of Little Rock, Arkansas. As shown in Fig. 373 it is an oblong, trough-like vessel with flat projecting wings at the ends. It is extremely well-finished, with thin walls, symmetrical form, and high polish. The color is quite dark and the material is as usual. The engraved design consists of incised lines, which form a number of rectangular compartments extending around the exterior surface of the body. The wings are perforated. The form of this vessel suggests the wooden trays of some modern tribes. A similar example, which is illustrated in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, is of much inferior interest, being plain and rude.

_Life forms._--A very large percentage of the bowls of this district are modified in such a way as to resemble, more or less closely, the form of some living creature--bird, beast, or reptile. Especial attention has been given to the heads. These are modeled in the round and attached to the rim or side, while other parts of the animal appear upon different portions of the vessel.