Fig. 340—Mosaic pattern
[Figure 338] is composed of two triangular designs fused at the greatest angles. The regularity of these triangles is broken by a square space at the fusion. At each of the acute angles of the two triangles there are circular designs with radiating lines, a common motive on the exterior of food bowls. Although no new elements appear in figure 338, with the exception of bracket marks, one on each side of a circle, the arrangement of the two parts symmetrically about a line parallel with the rim of the bowl imparts to the design a unique form. The motive in [figure 339] is reducible to triangular and rectangular forms, and while exceptional as to their arrangement, no new decorative feature is introduced.
The specimen represented in [figure 340] has as its decorative elements, rectangles, triangles, parallel lines, and birds' tails, to which may be added star and crosshatch motives. It is therefore the most complicated of all the exterior decorations which have thus far been considered. There is no symmetry in the arrangement of figures about a central axis, but rather a repetition of similar designs.
Fig. 341—Rectangles, stars, crooks, and parallel lines
The use of crosshatching is very common on the most ancient Pueblo ware, and is very common in designs on cliff-house pottery. This style of decoration is only sparingly used on Sikyatki ware. The crosshatching is provisionally interpreted as a mosaic pattern, and reminds one of those beautiful forms of turquois mosaic on shell, bone, or wood found in ancient pueblos, and best known in modern times in the square ear pendants of Hopi women. [Figure 340] is one of the few designs having terraced figures with short parallel lines depending from them. These figures vividly recall the rain-cloud symbol with falling rain represented by the parallel lines. [Figure 341] is a perfectly symmetrical design with figures of stars, rectangles, and parallel lines. It may be compared with that shown in [figure 340] in order to demonstrate how wide the difference in design may become by the absence of symmetrical relationship. It has been shown in some of the previous motives that the crook sometimes represents a bird's head, and parallel lines appended to it the tail-feathers. Possibly the same interpretation may be given to these designs in the following figures, and the presence of stars adjacent to them lends weight to this hypothesis.
Fig. 342—Continuous crooks