tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}img"/>

The specimen presented in Fig. 64 was obtained from a small fragment of ancient pottery from the State of New York.

It is generally quite difficult to determine which set of threads is the warp and which the woof. In most cases I have preferred to call the more closely placed threads the woof, as they are readily beaten down by a baton, whereas it would be difficult to manipulate the warp threads if so closely placed. In the specimen illustrated, only the tightly woven threads of the woof appear. The impression is not sufficiently distinct to show the exact character of the thread, but there are indications that it has been twisted. The regularity and prominence of the ridges indicate a strong, tightly drawn warp.

Fig. 65.—From a fragment of ancient pottery, District of Columbia.

Fig. 65 represents a form of this type of fabric very common in impressions upon the pottery of the Middle Atlantic States. This specimen was obtained from a small potsherd picked up near Washington, D.C. The woof or cross-threads are small and uniform in thickness, and pass alternately over and under the somewhat rigid fillets of the web. The apparent rigidity of these fillets may result from the tightening of the series when the fabric was applied to the plastic surface of the vessel.

Fig. 66.—From a fragment of ancient Cliff-house pottery.

I present in Fig. 66 the only example of the impression of a woven fabric found by the writer in two summers' work among the remains of the ancient Cliff-Dwellers. It was obtained from the banks of the San Juan River, in southeastern Utah. It is probably the imprint of the interior surface of a more or less rigid basket, such as are to be seen among many of the modern tribes of the Southwest. The character of the warp cannot be determined, as the woof, which has been of moderately heavy rushes or other untwisted, vegetable fillets, entirely hides it.

The caves of Kentucky have furnished specimens of ancient weaving of much interest. One of these, a small fragment of a mat apparently made from the fiber of bark, or a fibrous rush, is illustrated in Fig. 67.

Fig. 67.—Fabric from a cave in Kentucky.

Fig. 68.—Fabric from Swiss Lake-Dwellings.

This simple combination of the web and woof has been employed by all ancient weavers who have left us examples of their work. The specimen given in Fig. 68 is the work of the ancient Lake-Dwellers of Switzerland. It is a mat plaited or woven of strips of bast, and was found at Robenhausen, having been preserved in a charred state.2 Keller gives another example of a similar fabric of much finer texture in Fig. 8, Pl. CXXXVI.

An illustration of this form of fabric is given by Foster,3 and reproduced in Fig. 69.

Fig. 69.—Cloth from a mound, Ohio.	Fig. 70.—Cloth from a mound, Ohio.	Fig. 71.—Section.

In the same place this author presents another form of cloth shown in my Fig. 70. In Fig. 71 we have a section of this fabric. These cloths, with a number of other specimens, were taken from a mound on the west side of the Great Miama River, Butler County, Ohio. The fabric in both samples appears to be composed of some material allied to hemp. As his remarks on these specimens, as well as on the general subject, are quite interesting, I quote them somewhat at length.

"The separation between the fibre and the wood appears to have been as thorough and effectual as at this day by the process of rotting and hackling. The thread, though coarse, is uniform in size, and regularly spun. Two modes of weaving are recognized: In one, by the alternate intersection of the warp and woof, and in the other, the weft is wound once around the warp, a process which could not be accomplished except by hand. In the illustration the interstices have been enlarged to show the method of weaving, but in the original the texture was about the same as that in coarse sail-cloth. In some of the Butler County specimens there is evidently a fringed border."

In regard to the second specimen described, I would remark that it is a very unusual form, no such combination of the parts having come to my notice either in the ancient fabrics themselves or in the impressions on pottery. In a very closely woven cloth it might be possible to employ such a combination, each thread of the web being turned once around each thread of the woof as shown in Fig. 71; but certainly it would work in a very unsatisfactory manner in open fabrics. I would suggest that this example may possibly belong to my second group, which, upon the surface, would have a similar appearance. The combination of this form is shown in the section, Fig. 73.

SECOND GROUP.