Chapter I: Part 1

PAPERS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN EXPEDITION
NUMBER TWO

PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING

_Courtesy Wesley Bradfield_

MARIA MARTINEZ

The most skillful potter of San Ildefonso.]

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS

PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
A STUDY AT THE VILLAGE OF SAN ILDEFONSO

BY
CARL E. GUTHE

NEW HAVEN
PUBLISHED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS
BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1925

COPYRIGHTED 1925 BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE ANDOVER PRESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 1

RAW MATERIALS; COLLECTION AND PREPARATION 19

INGREDIENTS 19

RED CLAY 19

WHITE CLAY 21

TEMPER 21

COOKING VESSEL CLAY 22

SLIPS AND PAINTS 23

NATIVE SLIP 23

SANTO DOMINGO SLIP 23

RED SLIP 23

ORANGE-RED SLIP 24

BLACK WARE PAINT 24

BLACK OR GUACO PAINT 25

FUEL 26

MANURE 26

KINDLING 26

PARAPHERNALIA 27

PRIMARY PARAPHERNALIA 27

MOULDS 27

MOULDING SPOONS 27

SCRAPERS 27

POLISHING STONES 27

PAINT BRUSHES 28

SECONDARY PARAPHERNALIA 29

CARRYING AND STORING RECEPTACLES 29

MIXING SURFACES 29

BOARDS 29

WATER CONTAINERS 29

MOPS 30

PAINT RECEPTACLES 30

WIPING-RAGS 30

FIRING ACCESSORIES 30

MOULDING 31

BOWLS 37

OLLAS 42

COOKING-VESSELS 46

PRAYER-MEAL BOWLS 48

DOUBLE-MOUTHED VASES 49

HANDLES 50

SUN-DRYING 52

SCRAPING 54

SLIPPING AND POLISHING 57

WHITE SLIP 57

ORANGE-RED SLIP 59

RED SLIP 59

DARK-RED SLIP 62

PAINTING 66

FIRING 70

PREPARATION 70

BUILDING THE OVEN 70

BURNING 72

ACCIDENTS 76

TREATMENT AFTER BURNING 77

PAINTING OF DESIGNS 78

SYMBOLISM 85

BIBLIOGRAPHY 89

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES
PAGE

1. Maria Martinez, the leading potter of San Ildefonso _Frontispiece_

2. Fragments of ancient corrugated wares 6

3. Old decorated vessels from the Pueblo villages 8

4. Old San Ildefonso vessels 8

5. Old San Ildefonso vessels 10

6. Modern polychrome ware by Maria Martinez 10

7. Modern polychrome and black-on-red wares 12

8. Modern plain and decorated polished black ware 14

9. Winnowing clay 16

10. _a_, Digging tempering material, _b_, Guaco plant 20

11. Gourd spoons 26

12. _a_, Kneading clay _b_, Primary stages of bowl moulding 32

13. Method of building vessels 32

14. _a_, Work on rim of unfinished bowl, _b_, Shaping vessel 36

15. Successive stages in the moulding of an olla 42

16. _a_, Moulding an olla, _b_, A typical potter 44

17. _a_, Finishing touches, _b_, Application of handle 46

18. Sun-drying 52

19. Scraping 54

20. _a_, Cutting down an olla _b_, Applying slip 58

21. _a_, Applying slip, _b_, _c_, Polishing 60

22. Decorating small vessels 66

23. Decorating ollas 68

24. _a_, Drying the oven site, _b_, Preparing the oven 70

25. Oven-building 72

26. Firing 72

27. _a_, Smothered fire, _b_, Wiping fired vessels 74

28. Zuñi potter preparing clay 76

29. Zuñi potter moulding a vessel 76

30. Zuñi potter finishing a vessel 76

31. Zuñi potter decorating and firing a vessel 76

32. Design by Maria Martinez 81

33. Design by Maria Martinez 82

34. Design by Maximiliana Martinez 82

35. Design by Antonita Roybal 84

FIGURES IN THE TEXT

1. Outlines of post-Basket Maker vessels 6

2. Pre-Pueblo pottery 7

3. Decorations of ancient Pueblo bowls 9

4. Bad examples of modern pottery 13

5. Paint brushes 28

6. Sections of a bowl during building 34

7. Method of terracing a prayer-meal bowl 48

8. Angles of paint brush during stroke 68

9. Growth of a polychrome design 80

10. Raincloud design 83

11. Elements of design 87

INTRODUCTION

The present paper is a careful study by Dr. Guthe of pottery making at San Ildefonso, a typical Pueblo Indian town on the Rio Grande, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The field-work was undertaken in 1921 as part of an archaeological survey of the Southwest, that has been carried on for a number of years by the Department of Archaeology of Phillips Academy. From prehistoric archaeology to modern pottery making may seem a far cry, but in the Southwest the past merges almost imperceptibly into the present, and the Pueblos of today live in almost exactly the same way, and practise almost exactly the same arts, as did their ancestors of a thousand years ago. In the Southwest, therefore, the archaeologist has the invaluable opportunity of observing, and of studying at first hand, the life whose earlier remains he unearths from the ancient ruins. When one considers what such a privilege would mean to the excavator in, for example, the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, or the Neolithic village-sites of Europe, it becomes obvious that the Southwestern archaeologist should devote a not inconsiderable part of his time to the study of that industrious, kindly, hospitable, and thoroughly charming folk, the Pueblo Indians.

Living a sedentary, agricultural life in an arid country it was inevitable that the Pueblos should early have developed into expert and prolific potters; and so pottery, in the form of sherds scattered about their former dwellings, and of vessels piously interred with their dead, is the most striking, the most abundant, and the most readily accessible form of evidence to be dealt with by the Southwestern archaeologist. The value of pottery to the student of the past cannot be more happily expressed than in the words of the historian Myres: “When with the soft clay which has, so to say, no natural shape or utility at all, the human hand, guided by imagination, but otherwise unaided, creates a new form, gourd-like, or flask-like, or stone-bowl-like, but not itself either gourd, or skin, or stone, then invention has begun, and an art is born which demands on each occasion of its exercise a fresh effort of imagination to devise, and of intellect to give effect to, a literally new thing. It is a fortunate accident that the material in question, once fixed in the given form by exposure to fire, is by that very process made so brittle that its prospect of utility is short; consequently the demand for replacement is persistent. The only group of industries which can compare with potmaking in intellectual importance is that of the textile fabrics; basketry and weaving. But whereas basket-work and all forms of matting and cloth are perishable and will burn, broken pottery is almost indestructible, just because, once broken, it is so useless. It follows that evidence so permanent, so copious, and so plastic, that is to say so infinitely sensitive a register of the changes of the artist’s mood, as the potsherds on an ancient site, is among the most valuable that we can ever have, for tracing the dawn of culture.”

Myres wrote of arid Egypt, and in many ways conditions in the likewise arid Southwest, where a primitive people were also building up for themselves through agriculture a new type of civilization, closely parallel those of the Nile Valley in predynastic times. And the analogy, naturally enough, holds good in the matter of archaeological methods. The rise and spread of the predynastic cultures of Egypt are being traced out in large part by studies of ceramic types and of their stratigraphic relation one to another. The same methods are applicable, and indeed are now beginning to be applied, to the problems of the Southwest.

To understand the trend of recent archaeological work in the Pueblo field it is necessary to take a bird’s-eye view, so to speak, of the region. Over a vast area in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and the state of Chihuahua in Old Mexico, are found the remains of the prehistoric Pueblos. Their villages, now in ruins, were built in all sorts of places, on the tops of mesas, in open plains, in narrow canyons, on the ledges of great cliffs, and in the shelter of caves. They range in size from one-or two-room houses of the roughest construction, to great communal buildings of five hundred or even a thousand rooms, compactly built of excellent masonry and terraced to a height of three, four, or five stories. The artifacts, too, found in them vary bewilderingly, both in degree of perfection, and in type. All Southwestern houses, however, and all Southwestern artifacts, have a certain family resemblance that allies them to each other and makes it evident that they are all the product of a single culture, a culture distinct, for example, from that of Central Mexico or that of the Mississippi Valley. To reconstruct the history of that culture, to trace its origin, to follow its growth, and to explain how and why it developed in the peculiar way it did, are the tasks which confront the Southwestern archaeologist.

As in any scientific problem, the first step must be to collect and classify the data; and although Pueblo sites are numbered in thousands, and an overwhelming amount of merely descriptive work must still be done, the outlines of a classification have been achieved. We know, for example, what sort of ruins are found in the San Juan drainage of northern New Mexico; what kinds of pottery occur along the Gila river in southern Arizona. But what relationship, genetically and in time, there existed between, say, Pueblo Bonito and Casa Grande, we do not know. The time element, or in other words the historical sequence of our material, remains in large part to be determined.

To set up an historical outline we must first determine the relative ages of the different ruins, and then estimate the size and distribution of the Pueblo tribes from the earliest times to the present. At the top, so to speak, of our series the problem is simple enough--we are acquainted with the present location of the tribes, and the various Spanish accounts tell us where they have been living during the past three hundred and fifty years. But for the prehistoric period (and everything in the Southwest prior to 1540 is prehistoric) we must rely almost wholly on such evidence as may be turned up by the archaeologist’s shovel, for of native written records there are none, nor can native legendary testimony be safely depended upon. This, of course, throws a heavy burden upon the archaeologist, a burden which is made heavier by the fact that stratigraphy of remains is so rarely found in the Pueblo country.

Stratigraphy, in other words the superposition of the more recent upon the more ancient, has been the Open Sesame to all the reconstructive sciences. The very framework of geology, for example, has been built up from stratigraphic observations. In archaeology, too, stratigraphy has revealed the sequence of the Stone Ages; made clear the development of the early Mediterranean cultures, and the rise of predynastic civilization in Egypt. Therefore, as has just been said, the general lack of stratigraphic conditions in the Southwest renders the task of the student a particularly hard one. For some reason, not yet clearly understood, the Pueblos ancient and modern were very prone to shift from one dwelling place to another, and a site once abandoned was seldom reoccupied. Although their houses were of the most permanent construction, and their agricultural life should have tended to render them solidly sedentary, they moved about to a surprising extent. The result of this is that one seldom finds a ruin which was lived in for more than a few decades or, at most, centuries; and few have so far been discovered to contain superimposed remains illustrating any long period of development. Where such evidence is so rare, what can be found naturally becomes of the greatest importance; hence the recent diligent search for, and excavation of, such sites as show signs of long occupancy.

The choice of Pecos for investigation by Phillips Academy was due to the above considerations. The ruin was a large one, was occupied at the time of the Discovery and was not abandoned until 1838. A surface examination also showed that it must have been tenanted for a long time prior to the Conquest because its mounds were scattered over with potsherds not only of recent date, but also of several distinct prehistoric types, each one well enough known to students, but whose relative ages were entirely a matter of conjecture. It was hoped, therefore, that excavation might disclose some definite cases of superposition, and that several prehistoric periods might thereby be arranged in their proper chronological order.[1]

The results have been more than satisfactory. Pecos proved to have been built on the edge of a sharp-sided mesa, a fact not suspected before digging began, because the rubbish from the town had heaped up to such an extent against the original cliff as completely to mask its steepness. The first inhabitants naturally threw their refuse over the edge of the mesa, their descendants added to the accumulation, and the process continued down the centuries until there grew up a midden of enormous extent and, for the Southwest, of unusually great depth. It is stratified as neatly as a layer-cake.

When the exploratory trenches revealed the size and probable importance of the Pecos rubbish heap, all other projects were postponed, and two full field-seasons were devoted to the meticulous dissection of large areas of the deepest deposit. At frequent intervals stratigraphic tests were made, in which all the specimens from each successive stratum were kept separate and shipped to the Museum for study. It was found that many changes in culture had taken place during the long occupancy of Pecos; in the stone and bone implements, in the pipes, and in burial customs. But the most abundant, the most easily gathered, and the most readily interpreted evidence of cultural change was offered by the thousands of pottery fragments that filled the mound from subsoil to surface.

We have been able to recognize about twenty distinct wares, to arrange them into eight chronological groups, and to determine the exact sequence of these groups. This information, derived from the stratigraphic study of the pottery in the mounds, has been of the greatest value. Its application has been both local and non-local. In the excavations that we have since carried on at Pecos it has enabled us to date relatively to each other the various kivas, cemeteries, and small refuse mounds that occurred on the mesa top, and also to unravel much more confidently than we would otherwise have been able to do, the extraordinarily complex jumble of ruined, torn-down, stone-robbed, rebuilt, abandoned, and reoccupied rooms that we encountered when we attacked the pueblo itself. As helpful as has been the knowledge of the sequence of the pottery types in working out the details of local archaeology, its usefulness in that regard is small as compared with the flood of light which has been thrown on much larger and more vital problems. It has just been stated that some twenty types of pottery were identified; the majority of these are not peculiar to Pecos; many of them occur throughout large areas in the Rio Grande drainage; and so we are now able, in most cases by a hasty examination of the surface sherds, to assign to its proper place in the chronological series any ruin at which our types are present. Thus mere reconnaissance (a cheap and rapid undertaking) now serves to make clear the major outlines of Rio Grande archaeology. But the usefulness of the stratigraphic studies at Pecos does not end with the territory in which the Pecos types of pottery are found, for Pecos, because of its size and because of its situation on the main route between the Pueblo country to the West and the buffalo ranges to the East, was an important trade centre.

From its mounds we have taken potsherds from almost all parts of the Southwest, shells from the Pacific, spindle-whorls from Central Mexico, as well as pottery and stone objects from the Mississippi drainage. The importance of such finds is evident; every sherd from an outside culture found in a datable stratum at Pecos helps to fit into our general chronological scheme the culture from which it came; as conversely, does every Pecos or even Rio Grande sherd that turns up beyond the limits of the Rio Grande. Only a start has been made, but enough has already come to light at Pecos and at such stratified sites as have been excavated by other institutions, to provide us with a surprisingly full knowledge of the rise and growth of the Pueblo civilization. Ten years ago it would have been hard to believe how much could be accomplished by the stratigraphic work carried on by Nelson in the Galisteo Basin, Hodge at Hawikuh, Judd at Pueblo Bonito, Morris at Aztec, Guernsey in the Kayenta country, and the writer and his associates at Pecos.

The work, as I have said, has just begun, but the prospects are bright. Success will depend, as in any such endeavor, upon intelligent excavation, careful collection of data, and accurate observation of specimens, but the investigator cannot hope to derive the best results from his labors if he does not hold to a very broad view of his field. He must familiarize himself not only with the material of the locality he is working in but must also know as much as possible about that of other regions, for it is of the last importance that trade-objects be recognized wherever they occur. Of all trade-objects, vessels and potsherds are likely to be the commonest and most easily recognizable.

When the members of the Pecos expedition realized how vitally important was to be a close knowledge of the pottery, not only of that particular site, but also of the Rio Grande in general, and, indeed, of the entire Southwest, they devoted a large part of their time, both in the field and at the Museum, to the study of ceramics. A difficulty was at once encountered in our ignorance of the technique of Pueblo pottery making. We were constantly obliged to compare the paints and slips of different wares, to decide whether observed variations were technically fundamental, or were merely accidents of clay-mixing or firing. No full published accounts existed, nor had any of us had the opportunity for more than casual observation of potters at work. Dr. Guthe, accordingly, spent the month of August, 1921, at San Ildefonso in making detailed studies. His results are published in the hope that they may be of use to Southwestern archaeologists and ethnologists, and also to students of the primitive pottery of other areas who may be in need of material for comparative purposes.

In order that the reader may envisage the long history that lies behind the work of the modern potters, I give a summary of our present knowledge of the origin and development of pottery in the Southwest.

To go back to the very beginning, it is not yet certain whether pottery making was introduced into the region from Mexico, or whether it was a local invention. There is evidence in favor of each theory. As will presently be shown, there can be traced in the Southwest an almost unbroken development from the earliest and crudest forms, through intermediate stages, to the perfected styles of later times; nor can Mexican influence be seen in the wares themselves at any period from beginning to end. Hence it might appear that the art was of purely local origin and growth. On the other hand, Mexico was the breeding ground for all the higher elements of native American culture; corn-growing, the cultivation of cotton, the use of stone masonry, the true loom, etc., and it is practically certain that all these traits worked into the Southwest from Mexico. It would thus seem reasonable to suppose that the concept of pottery came from the same source, particularly as pottery does not appear in our area until some time after the introduction of corn, and the mere presence of corn proves contact of one sort or another with Mexico, where presumably pottery had been in use for a considerable period. My present feeling is, however, that the importation consisted of no more than the bare idea that vessels could be made of clay, and that the subsequent development of the art was entirely unaffected by outside influences. This question, so important for its bearing on general problems of dissemination _versus_ independent origin of culture traits, can only be settled by work in the archaeologically still unknown field of northern Mexico.

The earliest inhabitants of the Southwest of whom we have certain knowledge were the Basket Makers, so called by their discoverer because basketry rather than pottery was buried with their dead. They lived in southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, were an agricultural or semi-agricultural people who built no permanent houses, and who had no true pottery. In some of the caves that they occupied, however, there have been found a few fragments of crude, unfired clay dishes whose thick, bungling sides bear the imprints of the fingers of their makers. Save for occasional hesitating lines of incised marks, or straggling daubs of black paint, these vessels are undecorated. They bear no slip, nor, as was said above, were any of them subjected to the burning which would have converted them into true pottery. In the course of time, though whether that time should be counted in tens, or hundreds, or even thousands of years, we have at present no way of telling, the Basket Makers began to build houses of stone slabs, to group their hitherto scattered dwellings together into small communities, and, most important of all from the point of view of our present inquiry, to make hard, thin-walled, thoroughly fired vessels, in other words real pottery. The culture stage characterized by these

remains and further distinguishable from the classic Basket Maker on the basis of house structure, sandal form, and other traits, was first identified by S. J. Guernsey, and named by him “post-Basket Maker”.

Post-Basket Maker pottery is simple in form and in decoration. It is normally light gray in color. The vessel forms most commonly found are bowls (fig. 1, d, e), globular vessels with restricted orifices (fig. 1, a), and water jars, the latter often having a swollen neck (fig. 1, b). The body of the ware in cross-section has a markedly granular appearance, due to the large size of the bits of tempering material included in it. A small percentage of the bowls bear a thin white slip on the interior

ANCIENT CORRUGATED WARES

a. Pre-Pueblo. b. Early Pueblo. c. Classic Pueblo period.]

and are ornamented with irregularly drawn designs in black paint (fig. 1, e). Many of the patterns suggest basketry prototypes.

All in all, post-Basket Maker pottery, judging from the few specimens so far recovered, is surprisingly well made; so well as to raise the suspicion that an earlier stage still awaits discovery. Hints of such a stage have, indeed, been found in the form of heavy clay dishes, tempered with shredded juniper bark, unbaked but distinctly superior in size and workmanship to the Basket Maker product. These specimens have turned up in post-Basket Maker sites, but in caves stratigraphically so confused that it is still uncertain whether they antedated, or were contemporaneous with, the more highly-perfected post-Basket Maker wares. They are too crude, however, to be considered the direct forerunners of post-Basket Maker pottery. If the development took place in the San Juan, one step at least is still lacking. These questions will be answered by further work of the sort now being carried on by Guernsey in the Kayenta country and by Morris in the Canyon del Muerto.

From post-Basket Maker times down to the present day, however, the development of Southwestern pottery can already be outlined with considerable confidence. The next stage is usually called the pre-Pueblo. It is marked by further improvements in house-building, by the introduction of cranial deformation, and by certain innovations in ceramics. It had been the custom with the post-Basket Makers (as among many primitive people) to build up their vessels by adding to the growing walls successive rings of clay. When the process was complete and the sides had reached the requisite height, all trace of the rings was obliterated by rubbing down the surface. In the interiors of some post-Basket Maker pieces, however, with orifices so small that a smoothing tool could not be introduced, there were left the telltale junction-lines between the structural rings. In pre-Pueblo times it became the fashion purposely to leave unsmoothed the last few rings at the necks of certain small cooking vessels (fig. 2, a; pl. 2, a). This was the beginning of the elaborate coiled or corrugated technique, later so widely used.

Pre-Pueblo black-on-white ware takes the form of bowls, pitchers, ladles, small jars, and ollas. Its paste is hard, is less heavily tempered than post-Basket Maker paste, and the surfaces of the pieces are better smoothed. The decoration is characterized by boldness and dash, the brushwork being correspondingly hasty. The lines are of irregular width, nor was care exercised that the junctions of strokes should be accurate. As is shown by the accompanying drawings (fig. 2, b, c), the commonest elements are the stepped figure and the triangle, both often emphasized by sets of widely spaced thin lines which follow the outer edges of the basic patterns.

The transition between the pre-Pueblo and the Pueblo was evidently a gradual one. There was no violent break, either in culture or in physical type; and so it is hard to say just where the dividing line should be drawn. The introduction of indented corrugated pottery, however, forms a convenient milepost on the road of ceramic progress. The change was brought about as follows: the plain, broad rings of pre-Pueblo ware were replaced by a continuous thin fillet of clay applied spirally; the junctions between the successive laps of the fillet were left unobliterated, not only at the neck, but over the entire vessel; and the fillet itself was also notched or pinched or otherwise indented to produce various ornamental effects (pl. 2, b, c). Thus was made the well-known coiled or corrugated cooking-ware so characteristic of all the archaic true Pueblo ruins, a style introduced at about the same time as the development of the above-ground rectangular living-room, the clustered method of building, and the use of horizontally coursed masonry, all elements that are commonly recognized as typical of true Pueblo culture. The earliest varieties of Pueblo pottery are imperfectly known, for little work has so far been done in the small and often nearly obliterated mounds that mark the house-sites of the first pueblo-dwellers. It is certain, however, that in the San Juan and Little Colorado drainages there was a strong growth in corrugated ware. This technique was experimented on and played with. The variety and even virtuosity of the results are extraordinary: waved coiling, pinched coiling, incised coiling, and all manner of indenting were practised (pl. 2, b). The black-on-white ware evidently did not advance so rapidly, the vessels, to judge from the sherds, were not particularly symmetrical as to shape or notable as to finish. The decoration ran to hachure in wavy lines and to poorly drawn spiral figures.

As I have just said, little is known of the early Pueblo sites. The period which they represent, however, was undoubtedly a long one. The date of its beginning is entirely problematical, nor can we even say with any assurance when it ended, but the probabilities are that as early as the opening of the Christian era the Pueblos had begun to gather together into larger settlements, to develop the closely-knit community life, and the many-storied terraced style of architecture which typify the golden age of their existence. Between that time and 1000 or 1100 A.D. the more or less uniform early culture split up into distinct and often highly specialized local sub-cultures, each of which followed its own line of growth in house-building, pottery-making, and the minor arts. It was during this general phase of Southwestern history that there came into being the great pueblos and cliff-dwellings that housed entire villages: Pueblo Bonito and the other Chaco Canyon towns; the cliffhouses of the Mesa Verde and of the Kayenta country; the enormous adobe constructions such as Casa Grande on the Gila and Casas Grandes in Chihuahua.

OLD MODERN DECORATED WARE

a. Acoma. b. Zuñi. c. Sia. d. Hopi. e. San Ildefonso. f. Tesuque. g. Santo Domingo. h. Cochiti.]

OLD PIECES FROM SAN ILDEFONSO

a, b. Black-on-buff. c, d. Polished black.]

To describe the many different wares of the classic Pueblo period would entail far more space than is available in this introduction. Brief accounts of the more important styles are included in the first paper of the present series,[2] and a handbook of Southwestern pottery will, it is hoped, appear as a subsequent number. A single

illustration (fig. 3) must suffice to show the bewildering variety and the high artistic perfection which were reached at this time.

It seems ordained that periods of high achievement shall be followed by periods of slackening and even atrophy. So it was with the Pueblos. The years between about 1000 A.D. and the Spanish invasion of 1540 were evidently a time of tribulation. The formerly prosperous communities of the North and the South were abandoned, the population shrank, the arts degenerated, and when Coranado entered the Southwest he found the Pueblos occupying a mere fraction of their former range. What brought about this decline is not surely known, droughts, intertribal wars, pestilences, inbreeding, may all have been in part responsible; but its principal cause was probably the ever-increasing attacks of nomadic enemies. At all events Pueblo culture of the sixteenth century was not what it had been in the past, and pottery making suffered with the other arts. By that time the beautiful and elaborate, but difficult, corrugated technique had been given up, and cooking vessels had become mere unornamented pots; black-on-white ware with its handsome, intricate geometric decoration had long been extinct, replaced by various local styles, few of which equalled it in technical excellence or artistic perfection. As a matter of fact the ceramic products of the historic period are very little known. In old times pottery formed an essential accompaniment of the dead, hence at nearly every prehistoric ruin may be found a burial place richly stocked with mortuary vessels. With the arrival of the priests, however, missions and Catholic cemeteries were established, all interments took place under the supervision of the Padres, and no more bowls or ollas went into the graves.

Pottery, of course, is short-lived, few vessels, other than reverently guarded ceremonial jars, can be expected to escape breakage for more than a generation or two, and so we have practically no material to illustrate the changes which took place between the Conquest and the present day. Much will eventually be learned in regard to seventeenth and eighteenth century Pueblo pottery, but the work will have to be done largely on the basis of sherds from the rubbish heaps of the older towns, and such broken pieces as may be found under the fallen walls of abandoned dwellings. We can, however, supplement this research by working backwards, so to speak, from the modern wares. If we can acquire a thorough knowledge of them it will be much easier to understand the fragmentary material we shall have to deal with in studying the early historic period. We should accordingly collect all possible data as to the wares turned out in recent years at the various pottery-making Pueblos.

The term pottery-making Pueblos is used advisedly, for, queerly enough, no pottery is manufactured at a number of the towns. If this condition had come about within the last decade it would be easy to account for, as tin oil cans for holding water, enamelled pots for cooking, and china dishes for serving food have lately been pushing native pottery out of use. But no pottery, other than rough cooking ware, has been made for a long time at Taos, Picuris, San Felipe, Jemez, and Sandia; while the art is practically or wholly extinct at Laguna, Isleta, and Santa Ana. Potters occasionally marry into these towns and continue to exercise their craft, but they seem to have no disciples among their daughters or among the local tribeswomen. At all the other Pueblos, however, potting is still carried on, but in most cases with a decreasing output and a lamentable degeneration in technique. The vessels, being mostly made to sell to tourists or curio dealers, are carelessly fashioned, crudely decorated, and insufficiently fired. Good contemporary pieces

OLD MODERN SAN ILDEFONSO WARES

a, c, d. Polychrome. b, e. Black-on-red.]

_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_

PRESENT-DAY POLYCHROME WARE BY MARIA MARTINEZ]

are becoming rare, and the older vessels, which are naturally the best material for study, are now almost gone from the villages. Some pieces, however, are still left, and many more are in the hands of Mexicans and Americans living in the Southwest. These should be got into the custody of museums as rapidly as possible, for pottery is fragile stuff and every year sees the breakage of many unreplacable old vessels.

Excellent work in collecting and preserving the older pieces is being done by certain residents of Santa Fe, who have organized the “Southwestern Pottery Fund”. In spite of limited resources they have got together a most remarkable collection from the Eastern pueblos, and are constantly adding to it as specimens come into the market.

A plate showing a typical example of old modern decorated ware from each of the pottery-making pueblos is here given, in order that the reader may appreciate the striking differences which obtain (pl. 3); San Ildefonso vessels of this period are illustrated elsewhere (pls. 4, 5).

In closing this introduction something should be said of the older San Ildefonso wares, and of the remarkable renaissance which has led to the high artistic achievements of the present-day potters.

Of the pottery made at San Ildefonso during the early historic period we have as yet no definite knowledge, but from the fact that the sherds at the ruined pueblo of Cuyamongé, a Tewa village only a few miles from San Ildefonso which was abandoned in 1698, are closely similar to the seventeenth century wares of Pecos, we may conclude that the San Ildefonso product of that time also bore resemblance to that of Pecos. The Pecos wares in question have as yet been but briefly described.[3] The following are the leading varieties: rough black cooking ware; polished red; polished black; and decorated ware of two varieties, black-on-buff, and black-and-red-on-buff. The ornamentation is in heavy black lines, for the most part sloppily drawn, but the designs are bold, free, and effective. Although these styles all differ to some extent from the ceramics of late nineteenth century San Ildefonso, the artistic and technical relationship of the two groups is evident at a glance. The principal differences lie in the much greater amount of polished red found at Pecos, and in the absence from Pecos of a black-on-red decorated ware made at San Ildefonso.

What we know of nineteenth century San Ildefonso pottery is derived from pieces found in the pueblo when collecting began about 1870; and from vessels secured between that date and 1900. The oldest examples we have were thus probably not made much before 1850, and the great bulk of the specimens now in museums and in private hands were presumably turned out during the last third of the century. This material (aside from cooking pots, of which the older collections contain practically no examples) is divisible into five types, two plain and three decorated. The plain wares are polished black and polished red; the decorated are black-on-buff, black-and-red-on-buff (usually called polychrome), and black-on-red.

The polished black and polished red are, as Dr. Guthe brings out in greater detail below (p. 74), merely variants of the same ware--the red being produced by a preliminary burning in a more or less open fire--the black by smothering the fire with pulverized manure at a late stage in the burning. Vessels of both sorts were evidently made at San Ildefonso during the period under discussion, the red rarely, the black fairly commonly. It is usually supposed that the making of these wares, particularly the polished black, was confined to the nearby town of Santa Clara, and vessels of the latter type are ordinarily referred to as “Santa Clara black”. This is a natural enough error as the Santa Clara turn out nothing but the polished wares, and until the last ten years they led all the other pueblos in the excellence of their manufacture. The Indians of San Ildefonso, however, say that they have always made polished black pottery, and while its production may have partly or wholly lapsed during the 90’s and early 1900’s, there is little doubt that many of the older specimens, such as the ones here illustrated (pl. 4), are actually from San Ildefonso. The majority of the examples of old black are large storage jars with full, round bodies and relatively small orifices; there are also capacious bowl-like vessels (called by the Mexicans _cajetes_), which were used for the mixing of dough. The old pieces are less meticulously finished than are those of today, but their deep, velvety black lustre is of even greater beauty than the extremely high polish of the modern pieces.

The black-on-buff decorated ware was evidently the commonest variety of nineteenth century pottery. It took the form of prayer-meal bowls (small open vessels with terraced sides); medium-sized pots (pl. 3, e); and large storage jars (pl. 4). The ware, like all San Ildefonso work, is thick and heavy, giving a “woodeny” sound when tapped. The surface color is a creamy buff and the decoration is in deep black pigment. The bottoms of all the pieces, and the interiors of the necks of the jars, are painted red. The general nature of the elaborate designs is best brought out by the illustrations.[4]

Black-and-red-on-buff or polychrome was apparently not an abundant style in old times. Its occurrence at Cuyamongé and at Pecos, however, seem to indicate that it was always made at San Ildefonso. There are also in museums and private collections pieces which appear to be as old as any of the examples of non-polychrome. The style was seemingly limited to bowls and small jars (pl. 5). The ware itself is the same as the foregoing, but various areas in the decorations (which themselves seem to differ from those of the black-on-buff) are filled in with a purplish red paint of very characteristic shade.

The red-on-black, like the polychrome, was not common. As was said above, it is absent from Pecos and Cuyamongé, therefore it is apparently of fairly recent origin in the Rio Grande. Its introduction or invention may, indeed, date from as recent a time as 1850. It differs from the buff wares in having a dark red slip, much more highly polished than are the buff slips. The decoration is in deep black. No large pieces, as far as I know, were made, most specimens being small globular jars without necks. One of these and a vase-like vessel are illustrated (pl. 5).

Such was the pottery of San Ildefonso during the second half of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of that period, however, a marked degeneration set in.

_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_

PRESENT-DAY SAN ILDEFONSO POTTERY

a, b. Black-on-red by Antonita Roybal. c. Polychrome, by Maria Martinez--one black-on-red piece by Maximiliana Martinez.]

This was due to the substitution for native pottery of American utensils for cooking, food-serving, and containing water; and to the growing tendency to produce pottery for sale to curio stores and tourists rather than for home use. The black-on-buff ware and the polished black were given up entirely, the potters concentrating on the more showy black-on-red and particularly on the polychrome. In the case of the black-on-red the high gloss of the older pieces was no longer produced, and the paint, being neither carefully mixed nor sufficiently aged (see p. 26) developed on firing a dull, bluish cast. The polychrome also fell off in technical perfection and in artistic excellence. The old, dull, purplish reds were replaced by brighter colors, the designs became flamboyant, and many ugly non-Indian vessel shapes were introduced (fig. 4). This state of affairs went from bad to worse until, in 1907, the potter’s art at San Ildefonso was in a thoroughly bad way. A few women, however,

retained something of the old craftsmanship and were ready to profit by the opportunity which was about to present itself.

In 1907 Dr. E. L. Hewett of the School of American Research began a series of excavations in the ancient ruins of the Pajarito Plateau. The diggers were all Tewa Indians from San Ildefonso. They proved to be excellent shovelmen, who took a keen interest in everything they found. They helped us identify many specimens which would otherwise have been puzzling, and their comments on the pottery, and especially on the designs, were most illuminating. The women of the Pueblo, when visiting camp, often held animated discussions as to the vessels from the ruins, and it was suggested to some who were known to be good potters, that they attempt to revive their art, and try to emulate the excellence of the ancient wares. While the response was not immediate, there was observable, during the next few years, a distinct improvement in the pottery of San Ildefonso. Realizing the importance of this, the authorities of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research threw themselves heartily into the task of stimulating the industry. They urged the women to do better and better work, and in particular induced them to return to the sound canons of native art. Some old pieces remained in the pueblo, many others were in the Museum, of still others photographs were obtained. These were all brought to the attention of the potters.

The undertaking was not an easy one, however, for it was difficult to get most of the women to go to the trouble of making good pieces when the tourists, who were still the principal purchasers, were equally or even better pleased with imitations of china water-pitchers, ill-made raingods, and candlesticks. The problem thus resolved itself into one of supplying a market. The Museum bought many good pieces, and Mr. Chapman, who from the beginning had been a leading spirit in the attempt at rehabilitating the art, himself purchased large amounts of pottery, never refusing a creditable piece, never accepting a bad one.

Progress was slow, but eventually certain women, becoming interested in their work, made real progress both technically and artistically. Their products began to sell more freely and at better prices than did those of others. Antonita Roybal, Ramona Gonzales, Maximiliana Martinez, and Maria Martinez all turned out fine vessels, the two latter being greatly aided by their husbands, who developed into skillful decorators. Maria especially shone. By 1915 she had far surpassed all the others, her pots were in great demand, and at the present time she has a ready market, at prices which ten years ago would have seemed fantastic, for everything she can find time to make. Her income is probably not less than $2,000.00 a year, and following her example, many other women are now doing fine work and are earning substantial amounts. The beneficial effect of this on the pueblo has naturally been great. New houses have been built, new farm machinery, better food, and warmer clothing have been bought, and, best of all, there has been acquired a wholesome feeling of independence and of accomplishment, the value of which cannot be gauged in dollars and cents.

From the point of view of ceramics the development has been most interesting. Maria began with the manufacture of polychrome ware, as that was the style most commonly being made at the time. The shapes were improved, the finish of the surfaces was given greater attention, and the decorations were applied with a surer, more delicate touch (pl. 6; pl. 7, c). Black-on-red ware was taken in hand, the oldtime polish was restored, the vegetable paint properly prepared and aged (pl. 7, a, b). Polished black was also reintroduced; pieces of this sort, with their simple, graceful shapes and high black gloss sold so well that they soon became an important product (pl. 8, b). In 1921, as Dr. Guthe records (p. 24), Maria discovered how to apply to polished vessels dull designs which give the appearance of being etched (pl. 8, a). This method was in its infancy when Dr. Guthe made his study, but it has since proved so remarkably successful that it bids fair to drive out completely the making of plain polished ware. Late in the past autumn there appeared at the Indian Fair in Santa Fe, some pieces of a warm pinkish color, an entirely new departure in San Ildefonso pottery making, and one which promises much of interest. Developments and changes in design have kept pace with the improvements in

_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_

PRESENT-DAY POLISHED BLACK WARES]

technique, yet the development has been purely Indian, and the basic processes of today are essentially the same as they were a hundred or a thousand years ago.

A somewhat similar revival has taken place at the Hopi towns in Arizona. In 1897 Dr. J. W. Fewkes of the Bureau of Ethnology was excavating the ruin of Sikyatki near First Mesa. Nampeo, a woman of Hano, the wife of one of the workmen, observed the beautiful old bowls that came from the graves, skillfully copied their designs and then searched out beds of clay that could be burned to the exact shades of the ancient pieces. Her work was a direct imitation of a lost style rather than a development, such as Maria’s, of a current one; but the effect has been no less extraordinary. Nampeo’s bowls and ollas were so attractive that they sold well; they were copied by other women for sale and for their own use, and thus the potter’s art of the Hopi was not only greatly stimulated but also radically changed.

In addition to their economic importance, the cases of San Ildefonso and Hopi are of great interest as anthropological phenomena. The stimulus at both places was of course partly commercial, but it could scarcely have acted without an inherent capacity for rapid artistic and technical progress among the Indians themselves, nor could it possibly have brought about such great results without the inspiring example of exceptionally gifted leaders. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that other stimuli, as the discovery of new clays of surpassing excellence, or of fine new pigments, may have proved equally potent in ancient times, and that some of the striking mutations in pottery making, which have so puzzled archaeologists, may have been originally started by such discoveries, and been brought to fruition by the genius of prehistoric Marias and Nampeos.

A. V. KIDDER
_Director Pecos Expedition_

PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING

BY CARL E. GUTHE

The Pueblo of San Ildefonso is a Tewa village of about one hundred people, situated on the east bank of the Rio Grande some twenty miles northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. San Ildefonso was chosen for the present study because its women have always been skillful potters, and under the wise and friendly encouragement of the authorities of the School of American Research at Santa Fe have of recent years been steadily improving in their work without, however, sacrificing any of their native methods. Furthermore, they make more varieties of pottery than are turned out at any other one village. Last, and in some ways most important, the men of San Ildefonso have for a long time been accustomed to work in the various excavations carried on by the School, cordial relations have been established, the confidence of the Indians has been thoroughly won, and I did not encounter that reticence toward strangers, so characteristic of the Rio Grande Pueblos, because I was known to be a friend of their friends.

To the Pueblo woman pottery making is simply one of the mechanical household tasks, just as dishwashing is among us. Nearly every woman at San Ildefonso is a potter, good, bad, or indifferent. In two cases, at least, women have developed into real artists, and are relieved of other household duties in order to devote their time to pottery making. Each potter of today watched her mother make innumerable pots while she was growing up, and now with a family of her own, she makes pottery just as did her mother. Many steps and small details are carried out for no other reason than that the mother used to do likewise. Obviously every potter has her own technique, which differs slightly from that of others. The daughters in one family work in more nearly the same manner than outsiders, because they all have had the same teacher. In this report the attempt has been made not only to record the essential steps in the making of pottery, but also to note individual variations as an index of the amount of latitude a given process may permit.

Because religion and ceremony play so important a role in the everyday life of the Pueblo Indians, it is certain that there must be involved in the making of pottery and particularly in its decoration, a mass of esoteric beliefs and practises. The Pueblos, however, are so loath to refer in any way to the mystical side of their existence, and, if it is even mentioned, at once become so suspicious, that it seemed best to steer clear of all allusion to such matters. The present report, therefore, confines itself to a description and discussion of the purely technical side of the potter’s art.

The writer is indebted to the staff of the School of American Research, especially to Mr. Kenneth M. Chapman, for the facilities given for and the interest shown in the work; also to the Governor of San Ildefonso, Juan Gonzales, for his cordial coöperation. Of the eight informants used, Maria, wife of Julian Martinez, and Antonita, wife of Juan Cruz Roybal, should specially be mentioned because of their constant patience, and their willingness to answer the many questions which to them must often have seemed absurd. Thanks are also due to the American Museum of Natural History, New York, for the photographs of pottery making at Zuñi (pls. 28-31) which are introduced in this paper for comparative purposes.

WINNOWING CLAY

a. Hand method. As the material is sifted through the uplifted hands, the wind blows the fine, pure clay upon the shawl at the left, while the heavier impurities drop back on the pile.

b. Basket method. The clay is repeatedly tossed upward from the basket, until all the fine particles have been blown out and have fallen upon the shawl.]

RAW MATERIALS; COLLECTION, AND PREPARATION

INGREDIENTS

_Red Clay_[5]

The region most often visited for obtaining this clay is directly south of San Ildefonso, about a quarter of a mile from the village itself, in the arroyos of the low hills.[6] The deposit lies directly under a sandstone ledge and spreads over a considerable area. The clay is in the form of soft earth, easily scooped up with the hand. In gathering it the Indians first scrape off the top half-inch or so, which contains impurities such as small pebbles and twigs. When an area from two to three feet in diameter has been cleared in this way, the clay itself is scooped into a loose pile in the centre of the space, and transferred by the cupped hands into a woman’s shawl or a gunny-sack, and so transported to the house on the back.[7]

One method of cleaning the clay may be used either at the beds or at home. The material is winnowed like wheat to remove small pebbles and fine gravel, either of which will ruin a vessel. The larger impurities are of course picked out by hand. The cloth containing the clay is placed in front of the woman and a second cloth or shawl is spread on the ground to leeward of her. A gusty wind requires several shiftings of the shawl, to the woman’s evident annoyance. A double handful is lifted and allowed to sift through the fingers; the fine particles and dust are blown upon the shawl by the wind, while the heavier pieces fall again upon the pile of uncleaned clay (pl. 9, a). The height to which the hands are lifted, varying from three to five feet, the speed of the movements, and the rapidity with which the material is allowed to sift through the fingers, all depend upon the force of the wind. Sometimes, instead of lifting the clay in the hands, it is allowed to flow over the side of a shallow basket tilted toward the woman at the level of her shoulder; the coarser particles fall straight down in front of her on the pile of uncleaned clay. Another variation is to toss the clay into the air from a shallow basket (pl. 9, b). The movement is repeated quickly and rhythmically; the wind as before blowing the fine stuff on the shawl, while the coarse particles fall back into the basket. After this tossing has been repeated a dozen or more times, the residue, which consists mostly of coarse impurities, is thrown away. The process occupies approximately half an hour, depending somewhat upon the amount of clay handled. The cleaned clay, which is now ready for mixing, is by no means entirely dust; it contains no lumps, but flaky particles fully three-sixteenths of an inch across are often found in it.

If at the time of gathering the wind is not strong enough for winnowing, the uncleaned clay is brought to the house. Here it may be kept for a windy day, or may at once be sifted through an ordinary kitchen sieve of medium large mesh.