The black-and-white ware of modern pueblos, as Zuñi and Hano, the latter the Tewan pueblo among the Hopi, is of late introduction from the Rio Grande; prehistoric Zuñi ware is unlike that of modern Zuñi, being practically identical in character with that of the other ancient pueblos of the Little Colorado and its tributaries.
Decoration
Fig. 6. Fragment of pottery.
Fig. 7. Zigzag ornament.
As a rule, the decoration on pottery from Spruce-tree House is simple, being composed mainly of geometrical patterns. Life forms are rare, when present consisting chiefly of birds or rude figures of mammals painted on the outside of food bowls (fig. 6). The geometrical figures are principally rectilinear, there being a great paucity of spirals and curved lines. The tendency to arrange rows of dots along straight lines is marked in Mesa Verde pottery and occurs also in dados of house walls. There are many examples of stepped or terraced figures which are so arranged in pairs that the spaces between the terraces form zigzag bands, as shown in figure 7. A band extending from the upper left hand, to the lower right hand, angle of the rectangle that incloses the two terraced figures, may be designated a sinistral, and when at right angles a dextral, terraced figure (fig. 8). Specimens from Spruce-tree House show considerable modification in these two types.
Fig. 8. Sinistral and dextral stepped figures.
With exception of the terrace the triangle (fig. 9) is possibly the most common geometrical decoration on Spruce-tree House pottery. Most of the triangles may be bases of terraced figures, for by cutting notches on the longer sides of these triangles, sinistral or dextral stepped figures (as the case may be) result.