EVOLUTION OF FORMS.


[Illustration: FIG. 523.--Food trencher of wicker-work.]

[Illustration: FIG. 524.--Latter inverted, as used in forming bowls]

Bearing these statements in mind, the discussion of the evolution as
well as of the distribution of form, and later of the evolution of
decoration, in pottery will become easier. By lingering steps there
was early developed a method of building up vessels by a process
differing in part from the spiral. As the parching-bowl had been
evolved from the roasting-tray, so, we may infer, the food-bowl was
suggested by the hemispherical food-trencher of wicker-work. (See Fig.
523.) Yet, curiously enough, the inside of the latter seems not at
first to have been used in molding the food-bowl, as, it will be
remembered, the tray had been in forming the parching-pan. On the
contrary, the clay was coiled around and around the _outside_ of the
bottom of an inverted basket bowl (see Fig. 524), instead of being
pressed evenly into it. As with the cooking pot, so with this; as the
coiling progressed it was corrugated, not so much, however from
necessity, as from habit. In consequence of the difficulty experienced
in removing these bowl-forms from the bottoms of the baskets--which
had to be done while they were still plastic, to keep them from
cracking--they were made very shallow. Hence the specimens found among
the older ruins and graves are not only corrugated outside, but are
also very wide in proportion to their height. (See Fig. 525.) As time
went on it was found that bowls might be made deeper, and yet readily
be taken off from the basket bottoms, if slightly moistened outside
and pressed evenly all around, or, better still, scraped; for, being