15. Fabric from the ancient pottery of Alabama 40

16. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee 40

17. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee 40

18. Twined fabric from ancient salt vessel, Illinois 41

19. Twined fabric from ancient salt vessel, Illinois 41

20. Twined fabric from a piece of clay, Arkansas 42

21. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee 42

22. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Missouri 42

23. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Carter county,
Tennessee 43

24. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee 43

25. Twined fabric from ancient pottery, Tennessee 43

26. Twined fabric, with patterns, Ohio valley 44

27. Net from ancient pottery, District of Columbia 44

28. Net from ancient pottery, North Carolina 45

PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART OF EASTERN
UNITED STATES

BY W. H. HOLMES

INTRODUCTORY.

SCOPE OF THE WORK.

About the year 1890 the writer was requested by the Director of the
Bureau of Ethnology to prepare certain papers on aboriginal art, to
accompany the final report of Dr. Cyrus Thomas on his explorations of
mounds and other ancient remains in eastern United States. These papers
were to treat of those arts represented most fully by relics recovered
in the field explored. They included studies of the art of pottery, of
the textile art and of art in shell, and a paper on native tobacco
pipes. Three of these papers were already completed when it was decided
to issue the main work of Dr. Thomas independently of the several papers
prepared by his associates. It thus happens that the present paper,
written to form a limited section of a work restricted to narrow
geographic limits, covers so small a fragment of the aboriginal textile
field.

The materials considered in this paper include little not germane to the
studies conducted by Dr. Thomas in the mound region, the collections
used having been made largely by members of the Bureau of Ethnology
acting under his supervision. Two or three papers have already been
published in the annual reports of the Bureau in which parts of the same
collections have been utilized, and a few of the illustrations prepared
for these papers are reproduced in this more comprehensive study.

Until