No ruin in the Mesa Verde National Park has yielded
more specimens of pottery than Cliff Palace, many pieces of which are
preserved in various museums in Colorado and elsewhere. The collection
gathered by the writer was small compared with some of these, and
although only a few whole pieces were found, by restoration from
fragments a fair number of specimens, ample perhaps for generalization,
were procured. In the following mention of the pottery obtained from
the ruin a very comprehensive idea of the perfection in the ceramic art
attained in Cliff Palace can hardly be hoped.
Southwestern pottery may be divided into two types,
so far as superficial appearance goes; (1) coiled or indented
undecorated ware; (2) smooth polished ware. Of the latter there are two
subtypes; (a) pottery with a surface slip, generally white, on which
designs are painted, and (b) decorated pottery without a
superficial slip, and generally reddish in color. Cliff Palace pottery,
when decorated, belongs to the last two divisions, but some of the best
made specimens belong to the coiled or indented type. Although there are
several fragments of red pottery ornamented with designs painted in
black, and one or two specimens in which the basal color is orange, the
majority of the specimens belong to the so-called black-and-white ware,
which may therefore be called a type of this region.
The whole pieces of pottery collected were chiefly
mortuary vessels, and probably contained food offerings, indicating,
like the sipapus in the kivas, that the cliff-dwellers had a distinct
conception of a future life. In addition to the limited number of pieces
of unbroken pottery, many of the fragments were decorated with novel
patterns. Fragments of corrugated and indented ware are by far the most
numerous, but although many of these were obtained, not a whole piece
was found, with the exception of a single specimen plastered in a
fire-hole and three others similarly fixed in the banquettes of kivas.
These were left as they were found.
The same forms of pottery, as dippers, ladles, vases,
canteens, jars, and similar objects, occur at Cliff Palace as at
Spruce-tree House (pl. 23-27). All varieties were repeatedly found,
some with old cracks that had been mended, and one is still tied with
the yucca cord with which it had been repaired. It is evident from the
frequency with which the Cliff Palace people mended their old pottery
that they prized the old vessels and were very careful to preserve them,
being loth to abandon even a cracked jar (pl. 23, d). None of the
Cliff Palace pottery is glazed.a Some specimens of smooth
pottery are coarse in texture and without decoration; others have
elaborate geometrical figures; but animate objects are confined almost
entirely to a few pictures of birds or other animals and rudely drawn
human figures. The pictography of the pottery affords scant data bearing
on the interpretation of the ancient symbolism of the inhabitants, as
compared with that of Sikyatki, for example, in the Hopi country.
aThe first description of "glazed" pottery in
the Pueblo region is given by Castañeda (1540), who says: "Throughout
this province [Tiguex] are found glazed pottery and vessels truly
remarkable both in shape and execution." This has sometimes been interpreted
to mean the glossy but unglazed pottery of Santa Clara. Glazed
pottery was found by the writer in 1896 in ruins on the Little Colorado.
It appears to be intrusive in the Arizona ruins.
Plate 23. VARIOUS OBJECTS FROM CLIFF PALACE
(aPottery fragment with bird-claw decoration in relief (top),
b, dFood bowls, cIncised stone (middle, left to right),
eDecorated fragment of earthware, fCover for vase
(bottom, left to right))
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Food bowls.—In form the food
bowlsb from Cliff Palace (pls. 23-25) are the same as those
from other prehistoric sites of the Southwest, but as a rule the Cliff
Palace bowls are smaller than those of Sikyatki and the ruins on the
Little Colorado. They have, as a rule, a thicker lip, which is square
across instead of tapering to a thin edge or flaring, as is sometimes
the case elsewhere. The surface, inside and out, is commonly very
smooth, even glossy. The pottery was built up by coiling the clay, and
the colors were made permanent by the firing.
bFood bowls with handles, so common to the
ruins of northern Arizona, were not found at Cliff Palace.
The basis of the study of symbolism was of course the
pottery decoration. As a rule the center of the inside of the food
bowls is plain, but several have this portion ornamented with squares,
triangles, and other figures. The outside of several bowls from Cliff
Palace and Spruce-tree House is decorated, notwithstanding Nordenskiöld
speaks of exterior decoration as rare in his collections from the Mesa
Verde. The geometric ornaments consist of rectangular
figures.a
aNo curved lines are present in the many
examples of decoration on the outside of food bowls from Sikyatki.
Plate 24. FOOD BOWLS
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Mugs.—Some authors have questioned
whether the prehistoric people of the Southwest were familiar with this
form of pottery. The collections from Cliff Palace (pl. 24-26) and
Spruce-tree House set at rest any reasonable doubt on this point. There
are, however, peculiarities in the form of mugs from Mesa Verde. The
diameter of the base is generally larger, tapering gently toward the
mouth, and one end of the handle is rarely affixed to the rim. The
inside of the mug is not usually decorated, but the exterior bears
geometrical designs in which terraces, triangles, and parallel lines
predominate. Curved lines are rare, and spirals are absent. Mugs with
two handles are unrepresented. There are no ladles in the collection,
but several broken handles of ladles were found in the refuse. One of
these is decorated with a series of parallel, longitudinal, and
transverse lines, a design as widely spread as Pueblo pottery, extending
across the boundary into Mexico.
Globular Vessels.—The globular form of
pottery was used for carrying water and seems to have been common at
Cliff Palace. One of these vessels (pl. 25, b) has a small neck,
and attached to it are two eyelets for insertion of the thong by which
it was carried. Some of the globular vessels (pl. 25, a) have the neck
small, the orifice wide, and the lip perforated with holes for strings.
Double-lipped globular vessels, having a groove like that of a teapot,
have been found in Cliff Palace as well as in other ruins of Mesa Verde
and Montezuma canyon. The rims of these are generally perforated, as if
for the insertion of thongs to facilitate carrying. The bottoms of these
vessels are rarely concave. They are sometimes decorated on the outside,
but never on the interior.
Plate 25. VASES AND FOOD BOWLS
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Vases.—Small vases with contracted neck
and lip slightly curved, and larger vases with the same characters,
occur sparingly. These (pls. 26, 27, b) are decorated on the
exterior in geometrical designs; the interior is plain. The bases are
rounded, sometimes flat, and in rare instances concave.
Plate 26. POTTERY (a mugs from
crematory (top); b dipper-bowl and corrugated vase
(bottom))
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Plate 27. PITCH BALLS AND VASE
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Disks.—Among pottery objects should be
mentioned certain disks, some large, others small, some perforated in
the middle, others imperforate. Several are decorated. These disks
served as covers for bowls, and similar disks were employed as counters
in games or as spindle whorls. None of the clay disks from Cliff Palace
has a central knob or handle like those from Spruce-tree House.
RELATIONS AS DETERMINED BY POTTERY
In the report on Spruce-tree House, using pottery as
a basis, the prehistoric culture of the Southwest, including the
Gila-Salt area, which can not strictly be designated Pueblo, has been
provisionally divided into several subcultural areas. Among these are
the Hopi, a specialized modification of the Little Colorado, the Little
Colorado proper, the San Juan, and the Gila-Salt areas.
Cliff Palace pottery symbols are not closely related
to those on old Hopi ware, as typified by the collections from
Sikyatki.a Neither Cliff Palace nor Spruce-tree House pottery is
closely allied to that of the Little Colorado, as exemplified, by
Homolobi ware, but both have a closer likeness to that from Wukoki, a
settlement ascribed to the Snake clans, situated near Black Falls, not
far from Flagstaff, Arizona. As a rule the symbolism on pottery from
the Little Colorado, which includes that of its upper tributaries, as
the Zuñi, Puerco, Leroux, and Cottonwood washes, is a mixture of all
types. This river valley has exerted a distributing influence in Pueblo
migrations, and in its ruins are found symbols characteristic of many
clans, some of which, following up the tributaries of the Salt and the
Gila, have brought Casas Grandes decorative elements; others, with
sources in the northeast, have contributed designs from an opposite
direction. The predominating directions of ceramic culture migration in
this valley have been from south to north and from west to
east.b
aSikyatki ware is more closely related to that
of the ancient Jemez and Pajarito subarea than to that made by the
Snake clans when they lived at Tokónabi, their old home, or at Black
Falls shortly before they arrived at Walpi. Careful study of ancient
Walpi pottery made by the Bear clan before the arrival of the Snake
clans shows great similarity to Sikyatki pottery, and the same holds
regarding the ware from old Shongopovi.
bIn the ruins found on the banks of the Little
Colorado at Black Falls, the predominating influence, as shown by
pottery symbols, has been from the north. It is known from legends that
Wukoki was settled by clans from the north, the close likeness to the
symbols of the San Juan valley supporting traditions still current at
Walpi.
The relation of Cliff Palace pottery designs to the
symbolism or decorative motives characteristic of the Gila valley ruins
is remote. Several geometrical patterns are common to all areas of the
Southwest, but specialized features characterize each of these areas.
The pottery from Cliff Palace finds its nearest relation throughout the
upper San Juan region; the most distant to that of ruins in northern
Arizona near Colorado Grande.c
cA thorough comparative study of Pueblo
pottery symbolism is much restricted on account of lack of material from
all ceramic culture areas of the Southwest. It is likewise made
difficult by a mixture of types produced by the migration of clans from
one area to another. The subject is capable of scientific treatment, but
at present is most difficult of analysis.
SYMBOLS ON POTTERY
The symbols on the Cliff Palace pottery are reducible
to rectangular geometrical figures; life forms, with the rare exceptions
noted above, are not represented, and the exceptional examples are
crude. Contrast this condition with the pottery from Sikyatki, where
three fourths of the decorations are life designs, as figures of men or
animals, many of which are highly symbolic. The "sky band" with
hanging bird design, peculiar to old Hopi ware, was unknown to Cliff
Palace potters. Encircling lines are unbroken, no specimen being found
with the break so common to the pottery from the Hopi, Little Colorado,
Gila, and Jemez subareas. The designs on food bowls are often
accompanied with marginal dots. No example of the conventionalized
"breath-feather" so common in Sikyatki pottery decoration occurs.
Spattering with color was not practiced.
An analysis of the pottery decorations shows that the
dominant forms may be reduced to a few types, of which the terrace, the
spiral, the triangle, and the cross in its various forms are the most
common.
Various forms and sizes of triangles, singly or in
combination, constitute one of the most constant devices used by the
cliff-dwellers of the Mesa Verde in the decoration of their pottery. It
is common to find two series of triangles arranged on parallel lines.
When the component triangles are right-angled they sometimes alternate
with each other, forming a zigzag which may be sinistral or dextral.
This design may be called an alternate right-angular figure.
If instead of two parallel series of right-angle
triangles there are isosceles triangles, they may be known as alternate
isosceles triangles. These triangles, when opposite, form a series of
hour-glass figures or squares. This form is commonly accompanied by a
row of dots, affixed to top and base, known as the dotted square or
hour-glass figure. Hour-glass designs are commonly represented upright,
but the angles of the triangles may be so placed that the series is
horizontal, forming a continuous chain. Often the bases of these serially
arrayed hour-glass figures are separated by rows of dots or by blank
spaces.
A row of triangles, each so placed that the angles
touch the middles of the sides of others in the same series, form an
arc called linear triangles. The St. Andrews cross, which occurs
sparingly on Mesa Verde pottery, is formed by joining the vertical
angles of four isosceles triangles.
The cross and the various forms of the familiar
swastika also occur on Cliff Palace pottery. The star symbol, made up of
four squares so arranged as to leave a space in the middle, is yet to be
found in Mesa Verde. Parallel curved lines, crooked at the end or
combined with triangles and squares, occur commonly in the pottery
decoration of Cliff Palace. S-shaped figures are known. Rectangles or
triangles with dots, or even a line of dots alone, are not rare in the
decoration. No designs representing leaves or flowers occur on pottery
from Cliff Palace, nor has the spider-web pattern been found. The most
common geometrical decorations are the stepped or terraced figures,
generally called rain-clouds.
POTTERY RESTS
Among the objects found in the refuse heaps of Cliff
Palace are rings about 6 inches in diameter, woven of corn husks or
cedar bark bound together with fiber of yucca or other plants. These
rings (pl. 28) were evidently used as supports for earthenware vases,
the bases of which are generally rounded, so that otherwise they would
not stand upright. Similar rings may have been used by the women in
carrying jars of water on their heads,a as among the Zuñi of
to-day. Some of these rings may have been used in what is called the
"ring and dart" game, which is often ceremonial in nature. The best made
of all these objects, found by Mr. Fuller on his visit to a neighboring
canyon, is shown in the accompanying illustration (pl. 28, b).
The specimen is made of tightly woven corn husks, around which the fiber
is gathered so as to form an equatorial ridge rarely present in these
objects.
aThe Hopi use large clay canteens for this
purpose, no vessels resembling which, whole or in fragments, have been
found at Cliff Palace.
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