Similar to the last is the very effective decorative design impressed upon a large fragment of pottery from Alabama, shown in Fig. 113. Thepeculiarity of this example is the use of plaited instead of twisted cords. The work is neatly done and very effective. It seems to me almost certain that single cords have been used. They have been so imprinted as to form a zone, filled with groups of lines placed at various angles. An ornamental border of short lines has been added, as in the examples previously given.
Two other examples of cord ornamentation, which may be duplicated from the pottery of almost any of the Atlantic States, are presented in Figs. 114 and 115, the first from a fragment of pottery from Charles County, Maryland, and the other from the pottery of Alabama.
It will readily be seen that it is extremely difficult to draw a line between an ornamentation produced by the use of single or grouped cords and that made by the use of fabrics.
It is not less difficult to say just how much of this use of cords and fabrics is to be attributed to manufacture simply and how much to ornament.
Although the restorations here presented certainly throw considerable light upon the textile fabrics of the ancient inhabitants of theAtlantic States, it cannot be affirmed that anything like a complete idea of their fabrics has been gained. Impressions upon pottery represent a class of work utilized in the fictile arts. We cannot say what other fabrics were produced and used for other purposes.
However this may be, attention should be called to the fact that the work described, though varied and ingenious, exhibits no characters in execution or design not wholly consonant with the art of a stone-age people. There is nothing superior to or specifically different from the work of our modern Indians.
The origin of the use of fabrics and of separate cords in the ornamentation of pottery is very obscure. Baskets and nets were doubtless in use by many tribes throughout their pottery making period. The shaping of earthen vessels in or upon baskets either of plain bark or of woven splints or of fiber must frequently have occurred. The peculiar impressions left upon the clay probably came in time to be regarded as ornamental, and were applied for purposes of embellishment alone. Decorative art has thus been enriched by many elements of beauty. These now survive in incised, stamped, and painted designs. The forms as well as the ornamentation of clay vessels very naturally preserve traces of the former intimacy of the two arts.
Since the stereotyping of these pages I have come upon a short paper by George E. Sellers (Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XI, p. 573), in which is given what I believe to be a correct view of the use of nets in the manufacture of the large salt vessels referred to on pages398and409. The use of interior conical moulds of indurated clay makes clear the reasons for the reversed festooning of the cords to which I called attention.
1.Jewett, Llewellynn: Grave mounds and their contents, p. 92.
2.Keller: Lake-Dwellers. Fig. 2, Pl. CXXXIV.
3.Foster: Prehistoric Times.
4.Putnam, F. W., in Vol. VII of Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, page 244.
5.Putnam, F. W. Eighth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, p. 49.
6.Keller, Dr. F. Lake Dwellers. Fig. 3; Pl. CXXXVI.
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Cord-markings on pottery
Diagonal textiles
Fabrics, Diagonal
Forms of
from New Jersey
" Iowa
" Mississippi Valley
" Southern States
of lake dwellers
Miscellaneous
Farquharson, Prof., describes fabric from Iowa
Holmes, W. H., Catalogue of Ethnological collections
Jewett, L., British vase from the work of
Keller, Dr. F., on fabrics of Swiss lake dwellers
Lake dwellings, Fabrics from Swiss
Mississippi Valley, Prehistoric fabrics from
Nets from Atlantic coast
Osgood, Miss Kate C., reproduced methods of fabrication
Putnam, F. W., on ancient fabrics
Swiss lake dwellings, Fabrics from
Textiles, Diagonal
Forms of
from Mississippi Valley, Prehistoric
" New Jersey, Prehistoric
" Southern States, Prehistoric
" Swiss Lake dwellers, Prehistoric
Miscellaneous
used to support pottery
Vase from the work of Llewellyn Jewett, British
Weaving illustrated from pottery, Materials used in
Modes of
Wyman, Prof., on cord-marked pottery of Tennessee
Yarrow, Dr., H. C., obtained fabrics from pottery in California