The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America -- Antiquities; Stone age -- North America
FIG. 669. (S. 1–2.) Clay vessels from Iroquoian sites, New York.
Collection of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, New
York.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 670. (S. 2–3.) Peculiar jar found during C. B. Moore’s
explorations. A vase, probably unique, of compound form,
representing a short-necked bottle imposed upon a vessel of
eccentric shape, having a series of four projecting lobes, above and
below. The ware is most inferior. The decoration, faintly and rudely
executed, consists partly of the scroll and partly of parallel lines
and punctate markings.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 671. (S. 2–3.) Mound place. A bottle of gray ware, having a flat
base and a most unusual shape of body—possibly a compound form. The
decoration consists of series of curved trailed lines above the
spaces in the lower part of the body.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 672. (S. 1–1.) Mound below Hare’s Landing. “Mounds; Moundville
Revisited; Mounds of Chattahoochee and Flint River.” Moore, p. 431,
Fig. 3.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 673. (S. 3–4.) This jar was badly crushed, and lay apart from
human remains. Put together, it proved to be a beautiful jar of
highly polished ware. The decoration is made of scrolls,
depressions, and incised encircling lines.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 674. (S. 2–9.) Three fine decorated jars from graves in
southwestern Kentucky. B. H. Young’s collection, Louisville.
]
The range of pottery in America both north and south is from the rudest,
thick, clumsy bowl, such as has been found in Kansas or Nebraska or in
certain parts of New England, to the highest art of the ancient
Cliff-Dwellers. I do not say highest art of the Pueblo people, for the
modern Pueblo art does not equal that of the ancient Pueblos or
Cliff-Dwellers. It must be remembered, when studying American pottery,
that although a bowl from Arkansas, a bottle from Mississippi, a dish
from Tennessee, or a pitcher from New Mexico may be of similar form and
like pottery found in Greece, Egypt, or Europe, yet this American
pottery has such an individuality of its own that the museum curator can
at once distinguish the one from the other. Truly American pottery is
different from that found elsewhere in the world. It may seem a paradox
and yet it is true that while the bowl from Missouri and the bowl from
ancient Rome may be of the same form and size, there is a peculiarity
observed in the American specimen that enables one to set it aside as
distinct and peculiar to the American aborigines. One could assemble and
mingle in a museum a thousand vessels, jars, and bowls from all over the
world, remove all the labels, and yet the students of American ceramics
would at once pick out those that represent American art.
[Illustration:
FIG. 675. (S. 1–3.) Vase with incised design. From Mississippi.
Davenport Academy collection.
]
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