Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744Fewkes, Jesse Walter
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Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744
No pottery distinctively different from that which has already been
reported from the Verde valley ruins was found, and the majority
resembled so closely in texture and symbolism that of the cliff houses
of the San Juan, in northern New Mexico and southern Utah, that they
may be regarded as practically identical.
The following varieties of pottery were found at Honanki:
I. Coiled ware.
II. Indented ware.
III. Smooth ware.
IV. Smooth ware painted white, with black geometric figures.
V. Smooth red ware, with black decoration.
By far the largest number of fragments belong to the first division,
and these, as a rule, are blackened by soot, as if used in cooking.
The majority are parts of large open-mouth jars with flaring rims,
corrugated or often indented with the thumb-nail or some hard
substance, the coil becoming obscure on the lower surface. The inside
of these jars is smooth, but never polished, and in one instance the
potter used the corrugations of the coil as an ornamental motive. The
paste of which this coiled ware was composed is coarse, with
argillaceous grains scattered through it; but it was well fired and is
still hard and durable. When taken in connection with its tenuity,
these features show a highly developed potter's technique. A single
fragment is ornamented with an S-shape coil of clay fastened to the
corrugations in much the same way as in similar ware from the ruins
near the Colorado Chiquito.
The fragments of smooth ware show that they, too, had been made
originally in the same way as coiled ware, and that their outer as
well as their inner surface had been rubbed smooth before firing. As a
rule, however, they are coarse in texture and have little symmetry of
form. Fragments identified as parts of bowls, vases, jars, and dippers
are classed under this variety. As a rule they are badly or unevenly
fired, although evidently submitted to great heat. There was seldom an
effort made to smooth the outer surface to a polish, and no attempt at
pictorial ornamentation was made.
The fragments represented in classes IV and V were made of a much
finer clay, and the surface bears a gloss, almost a glaze. The
ornamentation on the few fragments which were found is composed of
geometric patterns, and is identical with the sherds from other ruins
of Verde valley. A fragment each of a dipper and a ladle, portions of
a red bowl, and a rim of a large vase of the same color were picked up
near the ruin. Most of the fragments, however, belong to the first
classes--the coiled and indented wares.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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