gles, squares, and terraces]

In the foregoing descriptions I have endeavored to demonstrate that,
notwithstanding the great variety of designs considered, the types
used are very limited in number. The geometrical forms are rarely
curved lines, and it may be said that spirals, which appear so
constantly on pottery from other (and possibly equally ancient or
older) pueblos than Sikyatki, are absent in the external decorations
of specimens found in the ruins of the latter village.

Every student of ancient and modern Pueblo pottery has been impressed
by the predominance of terraced figures in its ornamentation, and the
meaning of these terraces has elsewhere been spoken of at some length.
It would, I believe, be going too far to say that these step designs
always represent clouds, as in some instances they are produced by
such an arrangement of rectangular figures that no other forms could
result.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CLXVIII

GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTATION FROM AWATOBI]

[Illustration: FIG. 351--Bifurcated rectangular design]

[Illustration: FIG. 352--Lines of life and triangles]

[Illustration: FIG. 353--Infolded triangles]

The material at hand adds nothing new to the theory of the evolution
of the terraced ornament from basketry or textile productions, so ably
discussed by Holmes, Nordenskioeld, and others. When the Sikyatki
potters decorated their ware the ornamentation of pottery had reached
a high development, and figures both simple and complicated were used
contemporaneously. While, therefore, we can so arrange them as to make
a series, tracing modifications from simple to complex designs, thus
forming a supposed line of evolution, it is evident that there is no
proof that the simplest figures are the oldest. The great number of
terraced figures and their use in the representation of animals seem
to me to indicate that they antedate all others, and I see no reason
why they should not have been derived from basketry patterns. We must,
however, look to pottery with decorations less highly developed for
evidence bearing on this point. The Sikyatki artists had advanced
beyond simple geometric figures, and had so highly modified these that
it is impossible to determine the primitive form.

As I have shown elsewhere, the human hand is used as a decorative
element in the ornamentation of the interior of several food bowls. It
is likewise in one instance chosen