Negative-Painted Pottery from Crystal River, Florida

The occurrence of negative painting on two vessels from Florida raises some interesting questions in regard to the significance of this type of decoration in the Southeast. The vessels were excavated by Clarence B. Moore at Crystal River on the Gulf Coast about eighty miles north of Tampa Bay, and are illustrated in his report of 1903, Certain Aboriginal Mounds of the Florida Central West Coast.1 Brief references in the text describe them as bowls of excellent ware decorated with black pigment which has grown faint with wear and time. Moore, of course, makes no allusion to the technique of negative painting, since its presence in the Southeast was not suspected at the time.