. Bulletin. Ethnology. Decoration As a rule, the decoration on pottery from Spruce-tree House is simple, being composed mainly of geometrical patterns. Life forms are rare, when present consisting chiefly of birds or rude figures of mammals painted on the outside of food bowls (fig. 6), The geometrical figures are principally rectilinear, there being a great paucity of spirals and curved lines. The tendency to arrange rows of dots along straight lines is marked in Mesa Verde pottery and occurs also in dados of house Avails. There are many examples of stepped or terraced figures which are so ar
. Bulletin. Ethnology. Decoration As a rule, the decoration on pottery from Spruce-tree House is simple, being composed mainly of geometrical patterns. Life forms are rare, when present consisting chiefly of birds or rude figures of mammals painted on the outside of food bowls (fig. 6), The geometrical figures are principally rectilinear, there being a great paucity of spirals and curved lines. The tendency to arrange rows of dots along straight lines is marked in Mesa Verde pottery and occurs also in dados of house Avails. There are many examples of stepped or terraced figures which are so arranged in pairs that the spaces between the terraces form zigzag bands, as shown in figure 7. A band extending from the upper left hand, to the lower right hand, angle of the rectangle that incloses the two terraced figures, may be designated a sinistral, and when at right angles a dextral, terraced figure (fig. 8). Specimens from Spruce-tree House show con- siderable modification in these two types. With exception of the terrace the triangle (fig. 9) is possibly the most common geometrical decoration on Spruce-tree House pottery. Most of the triangles may be bases of ter- raced figures, for by cutting notches on the longer sides of these triangles, sinistral or dextral stej^ped figures (as the case may be) result. The triangles may be placed in a row, united in hourglass forms, or distributed in other ways. These triangles may be equilateral or one of the angles may be very acute. Although the possibilities of triangle combinations are almost innumerable the different forms can be readily recognized. The dot is a common form of decoration, and parallel lines also are much used. Many bowls are decorated with hachure, and with line ornaments mostly rectilinear. The volute plays a part, although not a conspicuous one, in Spruce- tree House pottery decoration. Simple volutes are of two kinds, Fig. 7. Zigzag Fig. 8. Sinistral and dextral stepped Please note tha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1901
