Fig. 11—Basketmaker coiled baskets. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)
Although baskets and carrying straps were utilitarian objects, their decorative possibilities were not overlooked. Many of the baskets had red and black designs formed by dyeing the sewing splints.
Another technique which was employed, primarily for the production of bags and to a limited extent in the making of baskets, was [twining]. In twining, splints or threads are intertwined around a foundation of radiating rods or threads. Twined bags are very characteristic of the Basketmaker [culture]. These are soft, seamless sacks which vary in size from a few inches to two or more feet in length. They are egg-shaped with slightly pointed bottoms and somewhat constricted necks. Usually they were made of the fiber of [apocynum], but some yucca fiber was also used. Most of the bag was of the warm yellowish brown of the undyed fiber but decoration was provided by dyeing some of the threads red or black and weaving in designs in horizontal bands. There was no introduction of specially dyed elements. When a change in color was desired, weft threads were simply rubbed with color. Possibly the finished article was treated in some way to fix the dye. Burden or tump straps and narrow sashes were also twined-woven and similarly decorated.
Fig. 12—Basketmaker carrying basket, with tump strap. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)
A few examples have been found in which the designs were painted on finished bags. These painted designs were placed on the bag interior as well as on the exterior and ingenious markers were woven into the fabric to serve as guides for duplicating the pattern on the reverse side.[37] The smaller bags have been empty when found. Medium sized ones have been found containing corn meal and something resembling dried fruit. The largest ones were often split and used for mortuary wrappings, particularly for children. Other bags were woven of cedar bast. They had a large mesh and could have contained only large objects.
Another type of bag represented in Basketmaker sites is made of skin. Most of these were formed from the skins of two small animals, usually prairie dogs. The animals were skinned forward from the back legs to the nose. The two skins were then sewed together with the neck of the bag formed by the two heads. They are usually found to contain oddly-shaped stones or other objects thought to have some ceremonial significance.
Fig. 13—Basketmaker twined-woven bags. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)
Although the Basketmakers did not have true pottery, they did have some sun-dried clay dishes. These usually contained a vegetable [temper] or binding material, such as cedar bark, to prevent cracking, and were molded in baskets. It is not known whether the idea of pottery, but not the technique for producing it through firing, had reached the Basketmakers from some other people, or if the idea of making the sun-dried dishes was one which they developed themselves. Most archaeologists believe that the whole concept of clay containers came from other people, but it is not impossible that the idea developed from the practice of putting clay in baskets while constructing cists.[93][95] If clay were left for some time in a basket it would naturally harden and, if the center portion had been scooped out, the hardened residue in the basket would produce a vessel of sorts. Toward the close of the Basketmaker period some vessels were made without molds, and sand began to replace vegetable fibers as a tempering material.