Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 3-46Holmes, William Henry
History
Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 3-46
Holmes, William Henry
Indian textile fabrics -- North America; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
It has been supposed that vessels of clay were often modeled in baskets,
and that the native earthenware preserved numerous impressions of
baskets. On closer analysis these impressions turn out to be the
application of pliable cloths, or of cords singly or in groups, or of
stamps covered with textiles or having geometric textile-like patterns
engraved on them. I can not recall a single example from eastern United
States in which it is entirely clear that the clay vessel was modeled in
a basket. The impressions of basket work occasionally seen are only
partial, having been applied after the vessel was practically finished.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII
DRAWINGS OF CHARRED FABRIC FROM MOUNDS.]
I present in figure 13, a small earthen vessel from a mound in North
Carolina, the entire exterior surface of which is marked with a fabric,
a pliable cloth or bag woven in the twined styled. The impressions are
not the result of a single application of the texture, but consist of
several disconnected imprintings as if the hand or a paddle covered with
cloth had been used in handling the vessel or in imparting a desired
finish to the surface.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Fabric-marked vase from a mound in North
Carolina.]
Specimens of diagonal fabrics, restored from potsherds, are given in
figures 14 and 15. The first is a very neatly woven diagonal from the
ancient pottery of Polk county, Tennessee. Two series of cords have been
interwoven at right angles to each other, but so arranged as to produce
the diagonal effect. One series of the cords is fine and well twisted,
the other coarser and very slightly twisted. The second is a piece of
matting restored from the impression on a small piece of pottery
collected in Alabama. It was probably made of rushes or heavy blades of
grass.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Diagonal fabric, ancient pottery of Tennessee.]
Twined weaving prevails in the fabrics impressed on pottery as in those
from all other aboriginal sources. An example of the simplest form,
obtained from a small fragment of pottery found in Polk county,
Tennessee, is shown in figure 16. Two series of threads are interwoven
at right angles, the warp being arranged in pairs and the woof singly.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Fabric from the ancient pottery of Alabama.]
At each intersection the pairs of warp threads are twisted half around
upon themselves, inclosing the woof threads and holding them quite
firmly, so that the open net-like effect is well preserved even under
strain or in long continued use. There are many varieties of this form
of fabric resulting from differences in size and spacing of the threads.
These differences are well brought out in the succeeding figures.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee.]
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