Prehistoric Textile Fabrics Of The United States Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 104.--Net from the pottery of North Carolina.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 105.--Net from the pottery of North Carolina.]

Many interesting examples could be given, both from the ancient and modern work of the inhabitants of the Pacific coast, but for the present I shall content myself by presenting a single example from the Lake Dwellings of Switzerland (Fig. 106):

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 106.--Net from the Swiss Lake Dwellings. Keller, plate, Cx.x.x.]

MISCELLANEOUS FORMS.

The forms of fabrics used by the ancient tribes of the Middle and Northern Atlantic States in the manufacture and ornamentation of their pottery have differed materially from those used in the South and West.

As a rule the fragments are smaller and the impressions less perfectly preserved. The fabrics have been more complicated and less carefully applied to the vessel. In many cases the impressions seem to have been made from disconnected bands, belts, or strips of cloth. Single cords, or cords arranged in groups by rolling on sticks, or by other contrivances, have been extensively employed. Baskets have doubtless been used, some of which have been woven, but others have apparently been of bark or skin, with st.i.tched designs of thread or quills. Some of the impressions suggest the use of woven vessels or fabrics filled up with clay or resin, so that the prominences only are imprinted, or otherwise cloths may have been used in which raised figures were worked.

Fig. 107 is obtained from a fragment of pottery from New Jersey. The impressions are extremely puzzling, but are such as I imagine might be made by the use of a basket, the meshes of which had been filled up with clay or resin so that only the more prominent ridges or series of thongs remain uncovered to give impressions upon the clay. But the threads or thongs indicate a pliable net rather than a basket, and the appearance of the horizontal threads at the ends of the series of raised st.i.tches suggests that possibly the material may have been bark or smooth cloth with a heavy pattern st.i.tched into it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 107.--From the ancient pottery of New Jersey.]

Very similar to the above is the example given in Fig. 108, also derived from the pottery of New Jersey.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 108.--From the ancient pottery of New Jersey.]

Fig. 109 ill.u.s.trates an impression upon another fragment from the same state. This impression may have been made by a piece of birch bark or fine fabric with a pattern sewed into it with cords or quills.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 109.--From the ancient pottery of New Jersey.]

Fig. 110 ill.u.s.trates an impression upon a large, well-made vase, with scalloped rim, from Easton, Pa. The character of the fabric is difficult to make out, the impression suggesting bead-work. That it is from a fabric, however, is evident from the fact that there is system and uniformity in the arrangement of markings, the indentations alternating as in the impressions of fabrics of the simplest type. Yet there is an appearance of patchwork in the impression that suggests separate applications of the material.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 110.--From the ancient pottery of Pennsylvania.]

In Figs. 111 and 112 we have what appear to be impressions of bands or belts. The first shown consists of six parallel cords, coa.r.s.e and well twisted, with a border of short cord indentations placed at regular intervals. This is a very usual form in all parts of the country, from the Mandan towns of the Missouri to Florida. It is possible that the cords may in this case have been separately impressed, but the example given in Fig. 112 is undoubtedly from, a woven band or belt, the middle portion of which seems to have been a closely-woven cloth, with a sort of pattern produced by series of raised or knotted threads. The borders consist of single longitudinal cord impressions with an edging of short cord indentations placed at right angles to the belt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 111.--From the ancient pottery of Ohio.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 112.--From the ancient pottery of New Jersey.]

Similar to the last is the very effective decorative design impressed upon a large fragment of pottery from Alabama, shown in Fig. 113. The peculiarity of this example is the use of plaited instead of twisted cords. The work is neatly done and very effective. It seems to me almost certain that single cords have been used. They have been so imprinted as to form a zone, filled with groups of lines placed at various angles.

An ornamental border of short lines has been added, as in the examples previously given.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 113.--From the ancient pottery of Alabama.]

Two other examples of cord ornamentation, which may be duplicated from the pottery of almost any of the Atlantic States, are presented in Figs.

114 and 115, the first from a fragment of pottery from Charles County, Maryland, and the other from the pottery of Alabama.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114.--Cord-markings from ancient pottery of Maryland.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115.--Cord-markings from ancient pottery of Alabama.]

It will readily be seen that it is extremely difficult to draw a line between an ornamentation produced by the use of single or grouped cords and that made by the use of fabrics.

It is not less difficult to say just how much of this use of cords and fabrics is to be attributed to manufacture simply and how much to ornament.

Although the restorations here presented certainly throw considerable light upon the textile fabrics of the ancient inhabitants of the Atlantic States, it cannot be affirmed that anything like a complete idea of their fabrics has been gained. Impressions upon pottery represent a cla.s.s of work utilized in the fictile arts. We cannot say what other fabrics were produced and used for other purposes.

However this may be, attention should be called to the fact that the work described, though varied and ingenious, exhibits no characters in execution or design not wholly consonant with the art of a stone-age people. There is nothing superior to or specifically different from the work of our modern Indians.

The origin of the use of fabrics and of separate cords in the ornamentation of pottery is very obscure. Baskets and nets were doubtless in use by many tribes throughout their pottery making period.

The shaping of earthen vessels in or upon baskets either of plain bark or of woven splints or of fiber must frequently have occurred. The peculiar impressions left upon the clay probably came in time to be regarded as ornamental, and were applied for purposes of embellishment alone. Decorative art has thus been enriched by many elements of beauty.

These now survive in incised, stamped, and painted designs. The forms as well as the ornamentation of clay vessels very naturally preserve traces of the former intimacy of the two arts.

Since the stereotyping of these pages I have come upon a short paper by George E. Sellers (Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XI, p. 573), in which is given what I believe to be a correct view of the use of nets in the manufacture of the large salt vessels referred to on pages 398 and 409.

The use of interior conical moulds of indurated clay makes clear the reasons for the reversed festooning of the cords to which I called attention.