WHITE WARE.
The coiled ware has already been presented in some detail. Most nearly related to it in material, form, color, and distribution is the archaic white ware, the pottery par excellance of the "Cliff-Dwellers." It is easily recognized, even from small fragments, whether found in the valley of the Colorado, of the Rio Grande, or of the Gila, although each locality has its slight peculiarities of texture, tint, shape, and ornamentation. As a rule the material is a fine-grained clay, tempered with fine sand, the surfaces of the vessels being coated with a thin wash of very fine white clay. The ware is nearly always well baked and hard, breaking with a saccharoidal, rarely with a conchoidal, fracture. The surface is, as a rule, well polished, but often slightly undulating. The color of the paste is generally gray within the mass and white upon the surface. Associated with the white ware in most localities we find a small percentage of red ware nearly identical in all save color with the white ware.
The forms are comparatively few and simple, a full, well-rounded body, as with the coiled ware, being a strong characteristic. The ornamentation is generally in black paint, exceptionally in red and white, and consists to a great extent of geometric figures, often rather rudely drawn. Very rarely we observe an attempt to delineate a life form—human or animal, never vegetable.
Classification by form.—The ware of each province is conveniently presented in form-groups, beginning with the more simple shapes and advancing to the more complex.
Bowls.—Bowl-shaped vessels have been in great favor with all the Pueblo peoples, and in ancient times, especially in the north and west, predominated very decidedly over all other forms. This is naturally a favorite shape with primitive peoples, as it is the most simple and probably that first developed. A long experience would be necessary for the evolution of narrow-necked or complex forms.
Our collections contain many examples of ancient bowls, perfectly preserved, but if this were not the case the shapes are so simple that it would be an easy matter to make satisfactory restorations from fragments. There is considerable diversity of outline, yet all may be conveniently classed under two heads: the hemispherical and the heart-shaped. The former are much more plentiful and were probably the favorite food vessels of the people. As a rule they are plain segments of spheres. The rims are, in rare cases, oval in outline, and a few are elongated at the ends.
Heart-shaped bowls are characterized by a somewhat conical base and a deeply incurved rim, sometimes much depressed about the contracted mouth. The forms are often elegant, and the painted designs are generally well executed and pleasing to the eye.
Ollas.—Between bowls and pot-shaped vases or ollas there is but a step—the addition of an upright or recurving band forming a neck. In vessels of the latter class the body is almost universally globular, often tapering a very little below. Occasionally there is a slight flattening of the bottom and very rarely a concavity. The neck is seldom high, but varies greatly in size and shape. These vessels correspond to the water vases of the modern tribes.
Bottles.—Bottle-shaped vessels are very widely distributed. They differ from the ollas in one respect only—the necks are narrower and higher. They are rarely flattened, as are the modern Pueblo bottles known as canteens.
Handled vessels.—Smaller vessels of nearly all shapes are at times furnished with handles. The origin of certain forms of these has received attention in the introductory pages. They vary in style with the shape of the vessel to which they are attached. Bowls exhibit two well-marked varieties—a cylindrical form and a simple loop. Those of the former often imitate the handle-like neck of a gourd, and archaic specimens from various parts of the Pueblo province are so literally copied that the small curved stem of the gourd is represented. This feature in some cases becomes a loop at the end of the handle, serving to suspend the vessel, like the ring attached to our dipper handles. Specimens from the headwaters of the Colorado Chiquito have the ends of the handles modeled to represent the head of a serpents or other creatures. A loop sometimes takes the place of the cylindrical handle, and is attached to the side of the bowl in a vertical or a horizontal position. It may be long or short, wide or narrow, simple or compound, and is not always evenly curved. In certain forms of cups the vertically-placed loop occupies the whole length of the vessel, suggesting well-known forms of the beer-mug.