Fig. 672. (S. 1–1.) Mound below Hare’s Landing. “Mounds; Moundville Revisited; Mounds of Chattahoochee and Flint River.” Moore, p. 431, Fig. 3.
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.
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.
Fig. 675. (S. 1–3.) Vase with incised design. From Mississippi. Davenport Academy collection.
Professor Holmes, in his publication previously cited, divides the pottery of the United States into seven groups:—