It was a common practice among the aborigines to employ woven fabrics in the construction and ornamentation of earthenware. Impressions were thus left on the clay, and by baking these were rendered as lasting as if engraved on stone.

From no other source do we obtain so wide a range of fabrics. The fabric-marked vases and sherds are obtained from mounds, graves, and village sites all over the country. There is not a state within the Mississippi or Atlantic drainage that does not furnish some example of the preservation of native fabric impressions on earthenware. The perfection with which every character of these textures is preserved is well shown in a number of the figures here introduced.

A somewhat extended study of this subject was published in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, and illustrations of nearly all the styles of weaving were given. As indicated by subsequent investigations, a number of slight inaccuracies of analysis and drawing occur in that paper, but they are of such minor importance that detailed correction is unnecessary.

Fig. 12.—Split-cane matting from Petite Anse island, Louisiana.

It would seem that imprints of cloth woven in the plain interlaced style appear to be quite rare, although it is difficult, from the impressions on clay, to distinguish this from other forms when the threads are closely impacted. In somewhat rare cases the interlacing is so arranged and alternated as to give diagonal effects as in a specimen shown in figure 13. These effects are peculiar to the interlaced fabrics, not being produced in twined or netted work.

It has been supposed that vessels of clay were often modeled in baskets, and that the native earthenware preserved numerous impressions of baskets. On closer analysis these impressions turn out to be the application of pliable cloths, or of cords singly or in groups, or of stamps covered with textiles or having geometric textile-like patterns engraved on them. I can not recall a single example from eastern United States in which it is entirely clear that the clay vessel was modeled in a basket. The impressions of basket work occasionally seen are only partial, having been applied after the vessel was practically finished.

[BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY]THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII

DRAWINGS OF CHARRED FABRIC FROM MOUNDS.