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The Indians of Manhattan Island
and Vicinity
By Alanson Skinner
American Museum Of Natural History

Editor, Edmund Otis Hovey
New York, Published by the Museum, September, 1909

The Types of Indian Relics Found in and about New York City
POTTERY VESSELS.

The pottery of this region may all be considered as being either the native Algonkian in type or showing Iroquoian influence with a third and intermediate variety. Algonkian vessels may be divided into the following groups according to shape:

  1. Conical, pointed bottom, slightly swollen sides, circumference largest at the mouth, - the typical Algonkian pot of this area, Fig. 14a.
  2. Like number 1, but much rounder and broader, Fig. 14b.
  3. Bottom pointed, sides slightly swollen, neck slightly constricted, Fig. 14c.
  4. Identical with number 2, except that just below the beginning of the neck, occur small raised lugs, ears or handles. This is rare from this area, Fig. 14d.
  5. Rounded bottom, somewhat constricted neck, lip sometimes flaring, or even turning down and back, Fig. 14e. The intermediate types are as follows:
  6. Rounded bottom, constricted neck, narrow raised rim or collar, Fig. 14f.
  7. Like number 61 but with sides more elongated and bottom more oval than round, heavier collar, generally notched angle, with or without a series, of small humps or projections at intervals, Fig. 14g.
  8. The Iroquoian types are as follows:
    1. Mouth rounded, collar or rim heavy, with humps or peaks at intervals, angle notched, neck constricted and bottom rounded; can stand by itself, an unknown feature in local Algonkian vessels, Fig. 14h.
    2. Same as number 7, but with mouth square, and humps at every angle. Much less common than the preceding, Fig. 14i.
In size, the vessels range from small toy-like pots to jars of very large capacity. In general they appear to have been made by the coil process, and are tempered with pounded stone or fine gravel, mica or burned or pounded shell. Sherds showing tempering by fibre or some other substance that disappeared in firing are rarely found. When vessels were cracked or broken, a series of holes was bored opposite each other on either side of the break and the parts laced together, rendering the vessel capable of storing dry objects, at least.

Life forms are exceedingly rare in local ceramic art. From Manhattan Island and Van Cortlandt Park, there come a number of specimens showing incised human (?) faces. This is not an uncommon form on Iroquoian sites in central and western New York. On the Bowmanis Brook site at Mariner's Harbor, Staten Island fragments of a typically Algonkian pot were obtained which bore at intervals, rude raised faces. . With the sole exception of a rather well-modeled clay face, apparently broken from the

FIG. 14. POTTERY FORMS OF THE COASTAL ALGONKIN

bowl of a pipe (Fig. 15b) found at Port Washington, Long Island, by Mr. M. R. Harrington, this brief statement concludes the list of pottery life forms reported from. this area, although others may yet be found here, since some interesting objects have been collected in immediately adjacent territory.

The forms of decoration consist of stamping with a stamp, roulette or paddle, and incision (Figs. 16 and 17.) Occasionally, but very rarely, stucco work occurs. Under stamping we can enumerate the following processes:

  1. Impression with the rounded end of a stick (rare).
  2. Impress ion with the end of a quill, or hollow reed, leaving a circular depression with a tiny lump or nipple (rare) in the center.
  3. Impression with a section of a hollow reed, making a stamped circle (rare).
  4. Impression with finger nail (doubtful, but perhaps used on some sherds from Manhattan Island).
  5. Impression of the edge of a scallop shell.
  6. Impression with a carved bone, antler or wooden stamp.
  7. Impression of a cord-wrapped stick.
  8. Impression with roulette.

FIG. 15. TYPICAL ALGONKIAN POTTERY PIPE AND FRAGMENT OF AN EFFIGY PIPE FROM PORT WASHINGTON, L.I.

Under the head of decoration by incision we can enumerate the following:

  1. Incised decoration, probably made with a stick.
  2. Incised decoration, possibly made with a flint object (only one specimen at hand). The paddle was frequently used to finish the sides and bottom of the pot by imparting an appearance of pressure with fabric when the clay was wet.
  3. . Stucco. Occasionally, ridges of clay placed on the rim for ornament appear to have been added after the shaping of the vessel.
Ornamentation is usually external, and vessels, either Algonkian or Iroquoian, are rarely ornamented below the rim, although occasionally the designs run part way down the side in the case of the Algonkian forms. Where decoration has been applied by one of the stamping processes, and more rarely by incision, it is sometimes continued over the lip or rim for an inch or less on the inside. This only occurs in the typical Algonkian forms, and is never seen when incised ornamentation is used. The rims of Iroquoian vessels are never ornamented on the interior, nor is stamping so frequently practised on vessels of this class. The intermediate forms, at least the first of the two mentioned, are frequently ornamented on the interior

Fig. 16. Incised Designs From Pottery Vessels
a, b and d, designs from Iroquoian vessels; c, designs from an Algonkian vessel; e, design from a vessel of the Irquoian type from a Connecticut rock-shelter, introduced here for comparison.

of the lip. This internal decoration is much more common in the southern portion of this area than elsewhere in the vicinity.

In design, we must of course, give up all thought of trying to obtain symbolism, if such there were, for there are no sources now - left upon ~which to base our assumptions. Certain conventional types of decoration seem to have been in vogue, usually consisting in rows of stamped or incised parallel lines and much more rarely of dots regularly arranged in the same manner. Zigzag, chevron and "herring bone" patterns are the most common, but other angular forms occur, and rows of parallel lines encircling the vessel are sometimes to be found. Stamping and incision as decorative processes never seem to occur on the same vessel. Curvilinear decoration is exceedingly rare, and not enough material is at hand to show that patterns were used, possibly these were scrolls of some form. On account of the lack ofmaterial, it cannot be determined. whether the designs on the Algonkian

FIG. 17. INCISED DESIGNS, FROM ALGONKIAN VESSELS.

vessels differ from those on the Iroquoian, except in a very general and unsatisfactory way.

The angle formed where the heavy rim or collar leaves the constricted neck of the - Iroquoian vessel is almost invariably notched, and as such collars and angles do not occur on vessels of the true Algonkian type, this feature is necessarily absent from them. It is noticeable that Iroquoian vessels are usually decorated with incised designs, rather than stamped patterns.

Pottery is found abundantly on the majority of the sites in this district; but, while very much more common than in the New England area, it does not equal in abundance that from the Iroquois country. It is rarely found buried in graves with skeletons as in the Iroquoian area; when sometimes found in graves, however, it is usually at some distance from the human ,remains and apparently Dot connected with them. Whole or nearly whole vessels are exceedingly rare and the number of those found up to date may easily be counted upon the fingers. Potsherds taken from pits or shell heaps, where they have not been exposed to the action of the weather, are often as thickly covered with grease as when they were broken and cast aside.

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