These vessels had been placed in a small recess, where the falling walls had not reached them, and were standing just as they had been left by their ancient possessors. The more perfect one, which had lost only a small chip from the rim, I determined to bring away entire. This I succeeded in doing by wrapping it in a blanket, and by means of straps, slinging it across my back. I carried it thus for a number of days over the rough trails of the cañons and plateaus. The other, which was badly cracked when found, was pulled apart and packed away in one of the mess chests. It is now with its mate in the National Museum, perfectly restored.
The unbroken vessel is shown in Fig. 239 about one-third its real height. Its capacity is nearly four gallons. The clay is tempered with a large portion of sand, some grains of which are quite coarse. The color of the paste is a light gray, apparently not having been greatly changed by the baking. A few dark contact clouds appear on the sides of the body. The walls are quite thin for a vessel of its size and are of very uniform thickness. The entire weight hardly exceeds that of a common wooden pail of the same capacity. The mouth is wide and the rim, which is made of a plain rough band, is one inch wide and abruptly recurved. The vessel can hardly be said to have a neck, as the walls round gradually outward from the rim to the periphery of the body, which is full and nearly symmetrical. The narrow strands of clay have been coiled with something less than average care, the exposed surfaces being wide in places and in others very narrow. The thumb indentations have been carelessly made. Two small conical bits of clay are affixed to the neck as if to represent handles. These may have been intended for ornaments, but are as likely to owe their presence to some little superstition of the archaic artisans.
The companion vessel has also a capacity of about four gallons. Its form differs from that of its mate, being considerably more elongated above and having a more pronounced neck. The material is about the same, but the color is darker and the workmanship is superior. The surface is coated with soot, indicating use over a fire in cooking food or in boiling water. The coil was laid with a good deal of care and the indentation was done in a way to produce a series of sharp points along the margin of the coil. The interior of the rim was finished with a polishing stone. A small cord of clay was neatly coiled into a double scroll and attached to the narrowest part of the vessel, corresponding in position to the knobs in the other example. This ornament, though small, is nevertheless effective. Similar scrolls are found upon vases from many parts of the Pueblo Province.
It is an interesting fact that this vessel had been successfully mended by its owners. A small perforation near the base had been stopped by cementing a bit of pottery to the inside with clay paste. These vases were evidently the most important of the household utensils of the cliff-dwellers, especially as in this place water had to be carried, at least during a part of the year, from the creek five hundred feet below. It is probable that baskets and skins were sometimes used for carrying water, and that the earthen vessels were used as coolers, as are similar vessels among many primitive peoples. That they were used for carrying water up the cliffs is indicated by the fragments that lie upon the slopes and point out the location of houses invisible from the trails below.
A large fragment of a similar olla was picked up in the valley of Epsom Creek, southeast Utah. This vessel was larger, neater in finish, and more elegant in shape, than either of those described. A sufficiently large fragment was discovered to show satisfactorily the character of the rim, the outline of the body, and the details of surface finish. (Fig. 240.) The rim is but slightly recurved and the neck is high and upright. The body swelled to a diameter of about eighteen inches at the greatest circumference. The paste, as usual, indicates a gray clay tempered with coarse sand. The inside is smooth and the walls are remarkably thin for so large a vessel, being about one-fourth of an inch in thickness. The coil is very neatly laid and indented, a variety to the effect being given by leaving occasional plain bands. This vessel is described by W. H. Jackson in the Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, Vol. II.
Fig. 240.—Part of a large vase from Epsom Creek, Utah.—1/8.
Fragments of this class of ware are found throughout the cañoned region of southern Utah and for an undetermined distance into Nevada. I have already described fragmentary specimens from Kanab and therefore pass on to the west.
DISTRICT OF THE RIO VIRGEN.
The most notable collection of this coiled ware ever yet made in any one locality is from a dwelling-site tumulus near Saint George, Utah, nearly three hundred miles west of the Rio Mancos.