Fig. 676. (S. 1–3.) Vessel imitating animal form; from Arkansas. Middle Mississippi Valley Group. Davenport Academy collection.
In New Jersey, in the Chesapeake region, the pottery-ware is to a large extent of Algonquin type, although some Iroquoian wares are found.
As in the case of New England, the forms are simple, the pottery crudely made. But of course there are found fragments exhibiting considerable skill in manufacture. These may be exotic types, and their presence due to knowledge of the art of more advanced tribes, or to barter or exchange.
The lower Mississippi mounds furnish some very superior pottery, though many of the bowls, dishes, and jars taken from the mounds of that region are no more skillfully made than those of the St. Francis and Cumberland valleys. There are some examples of black pottery, very highly finished, found along the Red River. Professor Holmes says of these:—
“The most striking characteristics of the better examples of this ware are the black color and the mechanical perfection of construction, surface finish, and decoration. The forms are varied and symmetric. The black surface is highly polished and is usually decorated with incised patterns. The scroll was the favorite decorative design, and it will be difficult to find in any part of the world a more chaste and elaborate treatment of this motive.”
Fig. 677. (S. 1–3.) Vessel imitating animal form; from Arkansas.
Professor Holmes devotes special attention to the southern Appalachian stamped ware. Most of the specimens in the Smithsonian came from the Savannah River Valley. Mr. Moore has dug up a great deal of this pottery along the Atlantic seaboard. The designs are stamped by means of a paddle. Professor Holmes gives us the following description:—
“Although some of the peculiar designs with which the paddle stamps were embellished may have come, as has been suggested, from neighboring Antillean peoples, it is probable that the implement is of Continental origin. It is easy to see how the use of figured modeling-tools could arise with any people out of the simple primitive processes of vessel-modeling. As the walls were built up by means of flattish strips of clay, added one upon another, the fingers and hand were used to weld the parts together and to smooth down the uneven surfaces. In time various improvised implements would come into use—shells for scraping, smooth stones for rubbing, and paddle-like tools for malleating. Some of the latter, having textured surfaces, would leave figured imprints on the plastic surface, and these, producing a pleasing effect on the primitive mind, would lead to extension of use, and, finally, to the invention of special tools and the adding of elaborate designs. But the use of figured surfaces seems to have had other than purely decorative functions, and, indeed, in most cases, the decorative idea may have been secondary.
