Pottery of the ancient Pueblos Part 4

DISTRICT OF THE RIO GILA.

The broad area drained by the Gila River and its tributaries abounds in ruins and relics, but its exploration is yet very incomplete. Coiled pottery identical, in nearly every respect, with that of the more northern valleys is abundant, but it is sometimes a.s.sociated with painted wares very different in style from those of the cliff-house districts. It will probably be found that the ceramic products of the Rio Gila and the Rio Grande are much less h.o.m.ogeneous than those of the Colorado Chiquito, the San Juan, and the Rio Virgen.

IMITATION COIL-WARE.

I have already mentioned the occurrence in the Pueblo towns of modern coiled pottery, and also that there are seen, occasionally, vessels in which the coiled effect is rudely imitated by means of scarifying and indenting the plastic surface. Specimens of the latter cla.s.s are generally small rude bottles with wide recurved lips and slightly conical bases. They are very rudely made and clumsy and are but slightly baked, and on account of the omission of proper tempering material are extremely brittle. They are new looking, and in no case show indications of use, and I have seen no example worthy of a place upon our museum shelves save as ill.u.s.trating the trickery of the makers. It is possible that they are made by the Mokis, but if so by very unskilled persons who have neither understood the methods nor employed the same materials as the professional potters. I consider it highly probable that some clever Navajo has thought, by imitating archaic types of ware, to outwit collectors and turn an honest penny.

PLAIN WARE.

All the groups of pottery furnish examples of plain vessels. These are generally rudely finished and heavy, as if intended for the more ordinary domestic uses, such as the cooking of food and the storing of provisions and water. The material is coa.r.s.er than in the nicely finished pieces and the surface is without the usual slip and without polish or applied color.

The characters of these utensils are quite uniform throughout very widely separated districts, so that it is more difficult to a.s.sign a single vessel to its proper family than in the case of decorated wares.

We have from Saint George and other localities examples of plain vessels that belong, without a doubt, to the coiled variety, the resemblance in material, color, shape, and finish being quite marked.

These vessels are plentiful in the province of Tusayan, and many of them, as indicated by their color, construction, and texture, belong to the yellow and orange groups of ancient coiled ware. There is in many cases an easily discernible gradation from the wholly coiled through the partially coiled to the plain ware. In some cases the coil has been so imperfectly smoothed down that obscure ribs encircle the vessel indicating its direction, and in other cases fractures extend along the junction lines, separating the vessel when broken, into its original coils. These vessels are large and heavy, with wide mouths and full bodies, which are occasionally somewhat compressed laterally, giving an oval aperture.

Similar pithoi like vessels are in daily use by the Mokis and also by the Zunis, Acomas, Yumas, and others. They are employed in cooking the messes for feasts and large gatherings, for dyeing wool, and for storing various household materials. The modern work is so like the ancient that it is difficult in many cases to distinguish the one from the other.

Besides the typical pot or cask there are many varieties of plain vessels, some of which appear to be closely related to, or even identical with, the cla.s.ses usually finished in color. These include bowls, pots, and bottles. I present three examples from the tumulus at Saint George, Utah. The little bottle, shown in Fig. 255, is remarkable in having a subtriangular shape, three nearly symmetrical nodes occurring about the most expanded part of the body. An interesting series of similar vessels has been obtained from Tusayan, some of which are decidedly askoidal in shape.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 255.--Bottle from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/2.]

Similar to the last in general outline is the curious vessel given in Fig. 256. It was obtained in Southern Utah, and is now in possession of the Salt Lake City Museum. The three nodes are very prominent and curve upwards at the points like horns. An upright handle is attached to the side of the neck.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 256.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/2.]

A large bottle-shaped vessel from the same locality is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 257. The neck is short and widens rapidly below. The body is large and globular, and is furnished with two small perforated ears placed at the sides near the top. There are a number of similar examples in the collection from this place. We have also a number of handled cups, mostly with globular bodies and wide apertures. All are quite plain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 257.--Vase from the tumulus at Saint George.--1/3.]

Examples from this and other sections could be multiplied indefinitely, but since the forms are all repeated in more highly finished pieces it is needless to present them.

PAINTED WARE.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.--It is with a peculiar sense of delight that we enter upon the study of a group of art products so full of new and interesting features. Every object of antiquity has its charm for us, but there is an especial fascination about the works of a people like the "cliff-dwellers," whose long forgotten history takes the form of a romance in our imaginations. In the study of these relics we have the additional charm engendered by a contemplation of new forms of beauty, and we follow the stages of their evolution from the initial steps to the end with ever increasing zest.

The ceramic art of cla.s.sic and oriental countries has exerted a powerful influence upon existing culture, and is therefore much nearer the heart of the general student than the work of the American races; but it will not do for science to underrate the value of a study of the latter. Its thorough examination cannot fail to furnish many ill.u.s.trations of the methods by which arts grow and races advance in culture, and, supplemented by a study of the art of the modern peoples, it will serve to ill.u.s.trate the interesting phenomena attending the contact of widely separated grades of art. In the introductory pages I have considered many of the technical questions of construction and ornamentation.

Before entering upon detailed descriptions of the specimens, I desire to give a brief review of the subject of painted decoration.

COLOR OF DESIGNS.--The colors employed are doubtless generally of a mineral character, although carbonaceous matter derived directly from vegetable sources may have been used to some extent. They comprised white, black, red, and various shades of brown, and were applied to the surfaces of the vessels by means of brushes not inferior in efficiency to those employed by the potters of more enlightened races.

EXECUTION.--The technical skill of the artist has not generally been of a high order, although examples are found that indicate a trained eye and a skilled hand. The designs are painted upon the show s.p.a.ces of the vessels, which have been tinted and polished with especial reference to their reception. Large apertured vessels, such as dishes, cups, and bowls, are decorated chiefly upon the inner surface. The design often occupies only a band about the rim, but not infrequently covers the entire inner surface. High or incurved rims have in some cases received figures upon the exterior margin.

Vessels with constricted necks have exterior decorations only. The placing of the designs was governed, to a great extent, by the contour of the vessel, although there was no fixed rule. The grouping of the figures is possibly a little more irregular in the more archaic forms, but in nearly all cases there is a tendency toward arrangement in zones horizontally encircling the vessel. This feature is suggestive of the use of the wheel or of the influence of wheel-made decoration; but there is probably a pre-ceramic reason for this peculiarity, to be sought in the decoration of antecedent vessels of more p.r.o.nounced surface or constructional characters, such as basketry. This arrangement may also be attributed in a measure to the conformation of the vessel decorated. It will be observed that generally the neck furnishes the s.p.a.ce for one zone of devices and the body that for another, while the shoulder, where wide or particularly accentuated, suggests the introduction of a third. In vessels of irregular form the figures take such positions as happen to have been suggested to the decorator by the available s.p.a.ces, by the demands of superst.i.tion, or the dictates of fancy pure and simple.

It appears that the artist never worked in a hap-hazard manner, yet never by rule or by pattern. The conception of the intended design was well formed in the mind, and the decoration commenced with a thorough understanding of the requirements of the vessel under treatment and of the effect of each added line upon the complete result. The vessels, being for the most part free-hand products, are necessarily varied in form and proportion, and the mobility of method in decoration is therefore a necessary as well as a natural condition. In accommodating the ordinary geometric figures to the variously curved and uneven surfaces, there were no erasures and, apparently, no embarra.s.sments.

This feature of the art shows it to be a native and spontaneous growth--the untrammeled working out of traditional conceptions by native gifts.

STAGES OF ORNAMENT.--In the transmission of a nation's art inheritance from generation to generation, all the original forms of ornament undergo changes by alterations, eliminations, or additions. At the end of a long period we find the style of decoration so modified as to be hardly recognizable as the work of the same people; yet rapid changes would not occur in the uninterrupted course of evolution, for there is a wonderful stability about the arts, inst.i.tutions, and beliefs of primitive races. Change of environment has a decided tendency to modify, and contact with other peoples, especially if of a high grade of culture, is liable to revolutionize the whole character of the art. The manufactures of our modern tribes show abundant evidence of the demoralizing effect upon native art of contact with the whites. There are no such features in the prehistoric art.

_First stage._--In the early stages of art the elements used in embellishment are greatly non-ideographic, and the forms of expression are chiefly geometric. The elements or motives are limited in number and are in a measure common to all archaic art. They embrace dots, straight lines, and various angular and curvilinear figures, which in their higher stages become checkers, zigzags, chevrons, complex forms of meanders, fretted figures, and scrolls, with an infinite variety of combination and detail. At the same time there is no confusion. The processes by which the parts are segregated are as well regulated as are the processes of natural growth. This phase of decoration seems to be the prevailing one in the earlier stages of Pueblo art.

_Second stage._--A second phase or stage is marked by the free introduction of ideographic devices of pictorial origin into decoration.

These are drawn, to a great extent, from that most prolific source of artistic conceptions, mythology. This stage is the second in Pueblo art.

The period or stage of culture at which such elements are introduced varies with different peoples. It is possible that ideographic and non-ideographic devices may enter art simultaneously. This is certainly to be expected in the ceramic art, which comes into existence rather late in the course of progress.

_Third stage._--In strong contrast with the preceding stages is the state of modern Pueblo decoration. Contact with the whites has led to the introduction of life forms and varied pictorial delineations. These conditions belong to a stage in advance of the position reached in the natural course of growth. Ideographic, non-ideographic, and purely pictorial characters are combined in the most heterogeneous manner in the decoration of a single vessel. The decorator has ceased to work under the guidance of his instincts as a rule unerring, and now, like the ma.s.s of his more highly civilized brethren, he must grope in darkness until culture shall come to his aid with canons of taste--the product of intellect.

CLa.s.sIFICATION OF WARE.--In the treatment of this great group, or rather collection of groups, of pottery a scheme of cla.s.sification is the first thing to be considered. In glancing over the field we notice that a whitish ware, having a certain range of material, finish, form, and decoration, is very widely distributed, that, in fact, it is found over nearly the entire area known to have been occupied by the Pueblo tribes.

We find, however, that within this area there are varieties of this particular group distinguished by more or less p.r.o.nounced peculiarities of color, form, and ornament, resulting from dissimilarity of environment rather than from differences in time, race, or method of construction. This group is a.s.sociated, in nearly every locality, with the archaic coiled ware, and together they are especially typical of the first great period of Pueblo art. Its makers were the builders of the cliff dwellings, of the round towers, and of countless stone pueblos.

Distinct from the preceding, and apparently occupying an intermediate place in time and culture between the primitive and the recent wares, we have a number of pretty well defined groups. At least two of these are peculiar to the ancient province of Tusayan. The vessels of one of these groups are noticeable for their rounded symmetrical bodies, their finely textured paste, and their delicate creamy shades of color. The designs are well executed and display unusual refinement of taste.

Another, and probably the more important variety, is characterized, first, by peculiarities of form, the body being doubly conical and the bottom deeply indented; second, by richness of color, orange and yellow tints prevailing; and, third, by the striking individuality and remarkable execution of the painted designs.

In the valley of the Little Colorado and extending southward to the Gila, we find remnants of a group of highly colored pottery differing from the preceding and, in many respects, from the widely distributed red ware of the north, specimens of which occur in connection with the white ware. The surfaces are painted red and profusely decorated in white, black, and red lines and figures.

Still another variety is obtained from this region. As indicated by collections from Saint John and Springerville, it consists greatly of bowls, the colors, forms, and decorations having decided points of resemblance to corresponding features of the cream-colored ware of ancient Tusayan. There are still other groups, probably of intermediary periods, whose limits are not yet well defined, examples of which are found in possession of the Pueblo Indians.

At Pecos the art was practiced long after the advent of the conquerors, and later specimens show the archaic decorative ideas worked out in Spanish glaze. The deserted pueblos of the Rio Grande furnish antique forms that show wide distinctions from the ancient wares of the west.

Another variety peculiar to the southwest shows indications of having been carried down to the present in the work of the Indians of the Lower Colorado Valley. Each of these groups and such new ones as may be discovered will be made the subject of careful study.

The remainder of this paper will be devoted to a single group--the first mentioned in the preceding list.

WHITE WARE.

The coiled ware has already been presented in some detail. Most nearly related to it in material, form, color, and distribution is the archaic white ware, the pottery _par excellance_ of the "Cliff-Dwellers." It is easily recognized, even from small fragments, whether found in the valley of the Colorado, of the Rio Grande, or of the Gila, although each locality has its slight peculiarities of texture, tint, shape, and ornamentation. As a rule the material is a fine-grained clay, tempered with fine sand, the surfaces of the vessels being coated with a thin wash of very fine white clay. The ware is nearly always well baked and hard, breaking with a saccharoidal, rarely with a conchoidal, fracture.

The surface is, as a rule, well polished, but often slightly undulating.

The color of the paste is generally gray within the ma.s.s and white upon the surface. a.s.sociated with the white ware in most localities we find a small percentage of red ware nearly identical in all save color with the white ware.

The forms are comparatively few and simple, a full, well-rounded body, as with the coiled ware, being a strong characteristic. The ornamentation is generally in black paint, exceptionally in red and white, and consists to a great extent of geometric figures, often rather rudely drawn. Very rarely we observe an attempt to delineate a life form--human or animal, never vegetable.

CLa.s.sIFICATION BY FORM.--The ware of each province is conveniently presented in form-groups, beginning with the more simple shapes and advancing to the more complex.

BOWLS.--Bowl-shaped vessels have been in great favor with all the Pueblo peoples, and in ancient times, especially in the north and west, predominated very decidedly over all other forms. This is naturally a favorite shape with primitive peoples, as it is the most simple and probably that first developed. A long experience would be necessary for the evolution of narrow-necked or complex forms.

Our collections contain many examples of ancient bowls, perfectly preserved, but if this were not the case the shapes are so simple that it would be an easy matter to make satisfactory restorations from fragments. There is considerable diversity of outline, yet all may be conveniently cla.s.sed under two heads: the hemispherical and the heart-shaped. The former are much more plentiful and were probably the favorite food vessels of the people. As a rule they are plain segments of spheres. The rims are, in rare cases, oval in outline, and a few are elongated at the ends.

Heart-shaped bowls are characterized by a somewhat conical base and a deeply incurved rim, sometimes much depressed about the contracted mouth. The forms are often elegant, and the painted designs are generally well executed and pleasing to the eye.

OLLAS.--Between bowls and pot-shaped vases or ollas there is but a step--the addition of an upright or recurving band forming a neck. In vessels of the latter cla.s.s the body is almost universally globular, often tapering a very little below. Occasionally there is a slight flattening of the bottom and very rarely a concavity. The neck is seldom high, but varies greatly in size and shape. These vessels correspond to the water vases of the modern tribes.

BOTTLES.--Bottle-shaped vessels are very widely distributed. They differ from the ollas in one respect only--the necks are narrower and higher.

They are rarely flattened, as are the modern Pueblo bottles known as canteens.