Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States

Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United?by William Henry Holmes

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Title: Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896 pages 3-46
Author: William Henry Holmes
Release Date: November 27, 2006 [EBook #19921]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PREHISTORIC TEXTILE ART OF EASTERN UNITED STATES
BY
WILLIAM HENRY HOLMES

CONTENTS

Page Introductory 9 Scope of the work 9 Definition of the art 10 Materials and processes 10 Sources of information 11 Products of the art 13 Wattle work 13 Basketry 15 Types of basketry 15 Baskets 15 Sieves and strainers 17 Cradles 18 Shields 18 Matting 18 Pliable fabrics 21 Development of spinning and weaving 21 Cloths 22 Nets 26 Feather-work 27 Embroidery 28 Fossil fabrics 28 Modes of preservation 28 Fabrics from caves and shelters 29 Charred remains of fabrics from mounds 35 Fabrics preserved by contact with copper 36 Fabrics impressed on pottery 37
INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS
Page PLATE I. Products of the textile art: a, Openwork fish baskets of Virginia Indians; b, Manner of weaving: c, Basket strainer; d, Quiver of rushes; e, Mat of rushes 18
II. Mat of split cane 28
III. Mantle or skirt of light-colored stuff 30
IV. Fringed skirt 32
V. Frayed bag and skeins of hemp fiber 34
VI. Charred cloth from mounds in Ohio 36
VII. Drawings of charred fabric from mounds 38
VIII. Copper celts with remnants of cloth 40
IX. Bits of fabric-marked pottery, with clay casts of same 44
FIG. 1. Fish weir of the Virginia Indians 14
2. Use of mats in an Indian council 19
3. Use of mat in sleeping 20
4. Section of cliff showing position of grave shelter 31
5. Portion of mantle showing manner of weaving 32
6. Analysis of the weaving of fringed skirt 32
7. Former costumes of woman and girl in Louisiana 33
8. Border of bag 34
9. Sandal or moccasin from a Kentucky cave 35
10. Fine, closely woven cloth preserved by contact with copper beads 36
11. Small portion of rush matting preserved by contact with copper 37
12. Split-cane matting from Petite Ause island, Louisiana 38
13. Fabric-marked vase from a mound in North Carolina 39
14. Diagonal fabric, ancient pottery of Tennessee 39
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 within the last few years