There is in the United States no collection of Southern mound pottery equal in extent to that obtained by Mr. Moore. His explorations have been of great benefit to science, and it is no exaggeration to state that his works shed very great light on prehistoric art as well in pottery as in other materials.
Therefore, I have quoted by permission from both Professor Holmes and Mr. Moore, and made use of numerous illustrations from their reports, including the outlines of types prepared by the former.
Fig. 638. Outlines showing range of form of vases. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.
Pottery may be said to be the barometer indicating the culture stage of any people. In the far North there is no pottery. In the St. Lawrence basin pottery is insignificant. In New England the few artistic specimens of decorative pottery have been made much of by observers, but these rare examples of the ceramic art indicate progress on the part of a few individuals. There was no real potters’ art north of the Ohio River or east of the Wabash. True, there are some good examples of fine pottery from the Ohio mounds, but the ancient Northern peoples made but little progress in ceramic art save on the part of a few individuals living in the Scioto Valley, southern Ohio. In the Iroquois country it appears that the natives were on the verge of developing art in pottery, and had they remained in their barbaric splendor two centuries longer, it is quite likely that they would have made remarkable advance in the potters’ art. Much of their pottery is decorated, but it is crudely so. Their pipes of pottery were highly developed, ornate, and interesting. But these have been considered under the chapter devoted to pipes and smoking customs.
Fig. 639. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.
Fig. 640. Vases of compound form. Middle Mississippi Valley Group.
So far as I am aware, the Wabash River in Indiana marks the farthest north, of Southern types of pottery. There may be a few strays now and then, but the cemetery explored by Mr. Anderson for Mr. Peabody, at that place, brought to light more than one hundred jars, bowls, and effigies, all of distinct types. (A few are shown in Fig. 681.) Elsewhere north of the Ohio and east of the Wabash, I have not known of effigy pottery being found.[[30]] Throughout the Ohio Valley there are some fine specimens of ceramic art found in the mounds. But the pottery, as a rule, between the Wabash and the Alleghenies is of the Fort Ancient culture. Some of it is shown in Figs. 648, 649.