Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

280 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 56The reconstructed size and shape of the cooking pots is based onthe seven fragmentary vessels, one of which is virtually complete.Of the remaining six, one is also nearly complete but lacks a rimwhich was probably broken off before the vessel ceased to be used.Two show nearly complete rims but lack bases, while three representthe lower half of vessels. It would appear on the basis of this materialthat only one type of vessel shape is represented; a pot with adisc-shaped, slightly concave bottom and sides that flare evenly, constrictat the neck and flare again at the mouth. This is the situlashape and vessels of this type are widely spread in Alaska fromHotham Inlet south to Kodiak Island. It should be kept in mindthat other shapes are represented in the collection as will be notedwhen rim sherds are described. But the situla shape is the only onethat can be fully reconstructed on the basis of complete or nearlycomplete vessels.The two most complete reconstructed pots represent extremes invessel size. One is very small, standing 12 cm. in height. It has adiameter at the mouth of 11.5 cm., a basal diameter of 8.5 cm., andan average thickness of 6 mm. (PL ll,a). The other is the largestIt standsvessel I have ever seen in a collection of Eskimo pottery.30 cm. in height but the rim is broken off all the way around at thepoint where the neck constriction would have begun, so the completespecimen was doubtless another 8 to 10 cm. in height. This vesselhas a diameter at the neck constriction point of 26 cm., a basal diameterof 18 cm., and an average thickness of 8 mm. (PI. ll,b). Thetwo vessels lacking bases but showing nearly complete rims are 12.5and 12 cm. in diameter, respectively, at the mouth, while the threelower halves of vessels have bases which measure 9, 10, and 11.5 cm.across. It would seem that the average-sized, situla-shaped vesselused at Tikchik was somewhat larger than the small virtually completespecimen, but a good deal smaller than the large one. In additionto the reconstructed vessels just described, there are 17 basalsherds in the collection, all of them from flat-bottomed vessels. Itwould thus appear that whatever may have been the shapes representedin addition to the situla shape, all pots had flat bottoms.Lip sherds too small to allow a definite reconstruction of thevessel shape total 22. In cross-section these sherds are rounded(9 sherds), flat and sloping out (4), flat (4), flat and sloping in (1),flat with incised line on the top (1), flat and sloping out with an incisedline on the top (3) Of the three partially reconstructed vessels.with rims, two are flat and sloping out in cross-section, while the third