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

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 281is flat and sloping out with an incised line. A single sherd from apot of undetermined form has a hole running through it. Since thissherd does not appear to be from near the rim of the vessel, it isprobably a mending hole.Of the 213 sherds examined, 26 are decorated as are the rims offour partially reconstructed vessels; thus a total of 30 decoratedsherds will be considered here. The three types of decoration inorder of frequency are Yukon Line Dot (18 sherds), Nunivak CheckStamp (8), Norton Check Stamp (4). Of the Yukon Line Dot sherds(Oswalt, 1955, p. 37), 14 are from the rims of vessels, including fourfrom partially reconstructed pots. The forms of decoration on theselatter four are all different. They include a single line with a rowof dots beneath it which run around the vessel at the point wherethe neck constricts; a single encircling line just below the lip with arow of dots immediately below and the motif repeated at the pointwhere the neck constricts; a similar pattern but with two encirclinglines instead of one at the neck constriction point and two rows ofvertical dots running from just below the constriction to the lip repeatedat intervals around the vessel; and a single row of dots encirclingthe vessel below the rim and again at the neck constrictionpoint. One of these reconstructed pots has a series of three encirclinglines around the inside of the vessel just below the lip. The remainingten rim sherds of the Yukon Line Dot type are characterized bya single row of dots below the lip with a series of ridges on the inside(4) ;a single row of dots below the lip (1) ;a row of dots underthe lip, at the neck constriction point, and a short double row of verticaldots (1) (PI. 6,8) ;a single encircling line and row of dots belowthe lip with interior ridges (3) and a; unique sherd with two parallellines just below the lip and a large circle dot design below the lines.In addition, there are four body sherds all showing a row of dots anda line in combination. Only three of the Yukon Line Dot decoratedrim sherds are large enough to show the full shape of the rim andthese all come from vessels with constricted necks and flaring rimssimilar to those described above.The Nunivak Check Stamped sherds (Oswalt, 1955, p. 35) includefour rim fragments, two basal sherds, and two body sherds.All arecharacterized by relatively large rectangular checks, 4 to 6 mm. wide,separated by comparatively wide bands. The decoration is badlyweathered on all but two sherds. The four rim sherds are all fromvessels with straight sides that curve in slightly at the rim ;the lipsare all round in cross-section. Sherds with Norton Check Stamped