Note 68 — TANOAN EPOCH

Much of the pottery offered for sale by Harvey and other dealers in Indian objects along the Santa Fe Railroad in Arizona and New Mexico is imitation prehistoric Hopi ware made by Nampeo. The origin of this transformation was due partly to the author, who in the year named was excavating the Sikyatki ruins and graves. Nampeo and her husband, Lesou, came to his camp, borrowed paper and pencil, and copied many of the ancient symbols found on the pottery vessels unearthed, and these she has reproduced on pottery of her own manufacture many times since that date. It is therefore necessary, at the very threshold of our study, to urge discrimination between modern and ancient pottery in the study of Hopi ware, and careful elimination of imitations. The modern pottery referred to is easily distinguished from the prehistoric, inasmuch as the modern is not made with as much care or attention to detail as the ancient. Also the surface of the modern pottery is coated with a thin slip which crackles in firing.