ABORIGINAL POTTER Y.                 25
Divide, each of which is marked by a distinct and charac-
teristic culture status. In taking up these several divisions
of native ceramic art, we shall find that, while we are
compelled to ignore, to some extent, the chronological
sequence, the successive stages of development of the art
followed the geographical arrangement from east to vest.
Thus we have three groups of pre-Columbian pottery,
beginning with the crude manufactures of the Eastern
States, advancing to the more artistic wares of the
mounds, and ending with the highest native development
of the ceramic art in the United States, as exemplified in
the creations of the lueblo or house-building tribes of
the far West. Having adopted this classification, let us
proceed to the consideration of these three divisions in
the order named.
I.-INDIAN POTTERY OF THE ATLANTIC COAST.
The nomadic tribes which were found in possession of
the country by the first white settlers, in the sections now
known as the New England, Middle, and Southern At-
lantic States, had scarcely progressed beyond the first
stages of savagery. Their implements were fashioned
from stone, and their utensils consisted of rude steatite
pots, mortars dug out of rough bowlders, and a few
earthern vessels. These latter were moulded by hand
from coarse clay, intermixed with sand and broken shells,
and being imperfectly baked, and consequently of an
extremely friable nature, were easily destroyed. For this
reason, few entire examples of their handiwork in clay
have descended to us. Broken fragments, however, are