University of Virginia Library

SUMMARY OF POTTERY FROM TSEH SO

By Florence M. Hawley

Basket Maker III pithouses and sections of the dump are represented
by Lino Gray and by La Plata Black on White. The pottery
complex from the Pueblo I rooms, from the Pueblo I burials, and from
the Pueblo I levels of the dump for Tseh So is consistent, Red Mesa
and Escavada Black on White, Lino Gray and Kana-Gray, and Exuberant
Corrugated (Plates IIIc, XIIb, XVc, d, XVIIc, d) being the
prevalent types. In the Pueblo II rooms, burials, and levels of the
dump, the complex was made up of small amounts of the preceding
types plus larger proportions of Gallup and of Chaco Black on White.

One of the most interesting problems of the archaeology of the
area at present is the origin of some pottery types and the influence of
outside areas or patterns of culture upon the types of the Chaco. At
this point it is difficult to say whether the Little Colorado culture
complex stemmed from the Chaco or the Chaco from the Little Colorado,
but the two are closely bound up. Lino Gray, prevalent in the
Basket Maker III sites, such as Shabik'eshchee village, Judd's Chaco
pit houses, and the pit houses excavated by the 1936 University of New
Mexico field school, is widely distributed throughout northern Arizona
and New Mexico, and into southern Colorado. Lino Gray is found over
a larger area than its Chaco associate, La Plata Black on White, for in
the west the Lino Gray is associated with the Lino Black on Gray, a
type of Basket Maker III Black on White decorated in black carbon
paint which contrasts with the iron paint used in the east.

Little, then, may be deduced from the presence of Lino Gray ware
in the Chaco, but the presence of La Plata Black on White in the period
of Basket Maker III links the canyon with the area running north
into the Four Corners district and across the line into Colorado, and
south to the Zuñi district. The few shards of dull orange-red on light

orange found in the dump of Tseh So suggest the possibility of first
experiments in producing a color scheme apart from the customary
black on white. One shard of White Mound Black on White indicates
trade with sites on the Arizona Puerco.

In Pueblo I we find the Red Mesa Black on White (Plate XVb),
which is known to extend south to the Red Mesa country around
Coolidge, New Mexico, Escavada Black on White (Plates XIIb, XIIIa)
likewise covers this area, and variants of the two types extend far
outside the district and even over into the Rio Grande. The culture
of this period was more extended than that of the preceding period.
Moreover, considerable trade is evident for this period. Deadman's
Black on Red and Kana-a Black on White extend eastward from the
Flagstaff district of Arizona; shards of these types are common in
Pueblo I Chaco fill but not so prevalent as to suggest home manufacture.
Shards of small bowls of the early reddish-brown ware with
black burnished interior from the Upper Gila district indicate trade
with the south. A few shards of a crude black on red ware with gray
paste, and one small bowl of this type, appear to be the experimental
attempts of the Chaco people, or of some near neighbors, to imitate the
black on red wares brought in from the outside.

In Pueblo II we find the local Escavada and Gallup (Plates XIIb,
XVIa, XVIId) and Chaco Black on White ware, whose relatives extend
westward into Arizona, southward to take in the Zuñi district and much
of the Central district of the Little Colorado, and eastward into the Rio
Grande. Relatives likewise extend north to Lowry Ruin, in southwestern
Colorado. Trade with the Kayenta district to the west is indicated
by Tusayan polychrome (Plates XIIb, XIVb), and with the
Little Colorado to the southwest by Wingate Black on Red (Plate XIIb),
both fairly common as trade pieces in the Chaco. McElmo Black on
White (Plates XIa, b; XIIIa, b; XVa; XVIb; XVIIa-c) was a large
item in trade with Mesa Verde settlements outside the canyon, or was
made by some colonists living in the canyon. The Mogollon contributed
San Francisco Red ware from the south, and the Upper Gila added
some of the finely ridged Upper Gila Corrugated with its lustrous black
smudged interior. Trade was evidently a thriving business about
950 A. D.

The shards used as spalls in the walls of Tseh So (Table I) come
from the Pueblo II upper structure. They are of the Pueblo I complex,
as one might expect. The builders gathered up shards which
were at hand, probably on the dump, and used them; we could not expect
them to break up the jars and bowls in use in their own households
when they needed fragments to prevent mortar from pushing out
through the crevices in walls they were building. The shards from
the Pueblo II doorways, which were eventually filled in with masonry,

tell a different story. These shards are of the Pueblo II complex. The
doorways were evidently filled in after the builders had lived in this
upper village for some time and their wives had been making the pottery
of Pueblo II. They had thrown the fragments of the broken
vessels onto the refuse mound, from whence shards were picked up for
use by the local masons when neighborhood quarrels or outside danger
made closing their doorways advisable.

The associated types representing Basket Maker III, Pueblo I,
and Pueblo II complexes at Tseh So were worked out by stratigraphy
in the dump, by superposition in the rooms, and by association with
dated cross finds of shards. These types and the level of origin of
burials were used as the bases for deducing the periods of skeletal
remains taken from graves. By study of cross finds and of related types
of shards from outside the Chaco, it is possible to reconstruct something
of the trade (and of the expansion of the periods represented), a trade
extending in every direction except to the east, and one of the widest
expansions known for the prehistoric Southwest. Lack of trade shards
from the east, but expansion into the east and finds of Chaco trade
shards in the east, are likewise noted for Pueblo III, and may possibly
be due to the fact that agricultural or other products were traded into
the Chaco from the east in exchange for Chaco pottery, the excellence
of which would have made it a very desirable item where poorer clay
or lack of skill produced less durable or less artistic wares. Such an
exchange of the durable Zia pottery for shawls, metates, and foods
from Santo Domingo and from San Felipe is found within the Rio
Grande today.