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Show OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. LIX uses and considerable variety in the originals copied. The manual skill was of a fair order, and symmetry of form, combined with grace of outline, was achieved without the use of the wheel. The rank of this ware is higher in these respects than that of the prehistoric pottery of Central and Northern Europe, though inferior to that of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. In characterizing the degree of culture represented by this ware, Mr Holmes decides that there is no feature in it that cannot reasonably be attributed to the more advanced historic tribes of the valley where it is found. It indicates a culture differing in many particulars from that of the Pueblo Indians, ancient or modern, but, on the whole, is rather inferior to it. This paper is especially valuable to American archaeologists in its relation to the culture system of the people who built the mounds, theories upon which have been so numerous and so fanciful. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM AND ORNAMENT IN CERAMIC ART, BY WILLIAM H. HOLMES. The two papers last mentioned were preceded by a paper from the same author, " Prehistoric textile fabrics of the United States, derived from impressions on pottery," published in the third annual report. These three papers present the results so far obtained by the author, each being a detailed study in its own field, of the objects collected and discussed. While each study is complete in itself, it shows by comparison its relation to other groups. The objects are. presented, compared, classified, and studied in the same manner and with the same intention as those with which the naturalist uses the specimens within his domain. The prominent feature of * the present paper, which combines the results of the three former papers, is that it presents the evolution of form and ornament in the ceramic art and suggests the same evolution in all other developments of art. The course of development here as elsewhere is show* to proceed from the simple to the complex, and the causes and processes of the developments are explained, analyzed, clae- |