By unknown Mancos potter. Photo by museum - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/181 CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64335637
ANASAZI: Puebloan people excelled at creating an immense variety of pottery using only black and white. This color scheme was partly dictated by the nature of the clay and the mineral or plant paints available. Archaeologists surmise that cross-hatched designs like the one on this bowl may have represented the color turquoise—reflecting the precious stone and the color of water, a sacred commodity in the dry Southwest region.
This item is on view in the Brooklyn Museum: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, The Americas’ First Peoples, 4000 B.C.E.–1521 C.E.
By NPS photographer -https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/education/artifactgallery_basket.htm Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50845471
BASKETMAKERS: The basket pictured, most likely dating from A.D. 450-750, shows the intricacy of woven patterns created by people in the Mesa Verde region as they began to transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural lifestyle. Not only were baskets used for collecting seeds, nuts, fruits, and berries, but they were sometimes coated with pitch on the inside, which allowed them to hold water and tolerate heat. Baskets were also used for cooking, as an alternative to roasting food over hot coals. People could heat stones in the fire and then drop them into the baskets. Seeds were parched or roasted by placing warm stones in with the seeds and then shaking them together.
By Artotem from Here, There, and... - We Can Learn a Lot from the PastUploaded by PDTillman, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15594419
ANCESTRAL PUEBLOAN: Pecos Glazeware Bowl, labelled as serpent design, Pecos National Historical Park From the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo in in San Miguel County, New Mexico.
By National Park service photo - photo and description page, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=598538
ANASAZI: Chaco Culture bowl, 11th to 13th centuries, Pueblo Alto, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
National Park Service Museum Collection of Chaco Culture National Historic Park. American Indian peoples have continuously occupied the Colorado Plateau of the Southwest for over 10,000 years. From about AD 1000 - 1150, Chacoan culture presided over much of the Four Corners region. The Chacoan people created an urban center of spectacular public architecture by employing formal design, astronomical alignments, geometry, unique masonry, landscaping, and engineering techniques that allowed multi-storied construction for the first time in the American Southwest.
The people built monumental public and ceremonial buildings in the canyon. The buildings were massive, multi-storied masonry structures of rooms, kivas, terraces, and plazas. The largest building-Pueblo Bonito-is estimated to have contained over 600 rooms and rose four, possibly five, stories high. Hundreds of miles of formal roads radiated out from the canyon and linked Chaco to distant communities.
The cultural phenomenon centered in Chaco Canyon was the achievement of a group of people archaeologists call the Chaco Anasazi. Today, their descendants are members of 20 Indian tribes in New Mexico and Arizona. The accomplishments of the ancient people of Chaco Canyon are part of the history and traditions of the modern-day Pueblo tribes of New Mexico, the Hopi of Arizona, and the Navajo."
By Gittinsj, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70799361
SINAGUA: V-Bar-V Petroglyphs in the Coconino National Forest, Arizona.
By unknown Mogollon artisans. Photo by museum - https://www.artic.edu/artworks/55249/ritual-cache, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92143679
SALADO-MOGOLLON: Mountain lion effigy from 1300–1400, found in a protected cave in the general Mimbres area. Note the similarity to Zuni fetishes
This item is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the Ritual Cache Exhibit 1300/1400; Artist: Salado branch of the Mogollon; Southeastern Arizona, United States.
Creative Commons Zero (CC0) Art Institute of Chicago
Discovered wrapped and hidden in a remote, dry cave, this cache of ritual figures comes from the Salado culture, which flourished in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Brilliantly colored and adorned with flicker feathers and dyed cotton string, these effigies once formed an altar as agents for communion with the life-giving spirits of the earth and sky. The large male figure, with his feather necklace and bold black-and-turquoise zigzag pattern, features sky symbolism. The smaller, female figure is a more self-contained form, probably corresponding to the earth. Her ocher color likely refers to maize and pollen, symbols of sustenance and fertility. The accompanying figures are a mountain lion (the chief predator in the region) and two serpents (carved from cottonwood roots), representing agents of communication with the earth and the seasonal cycle of fertility. Curved wooden throwing sticks for rabbit hunting complete the ensemble. Testimony to the antiquity and endurance of the worship of earth and sky and to the spiritual bonds between people and animals, these objects bear close resemblance to ritual figures and implements still used today among the diverse Pueblo peoples.
By US-NPS - http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/125tonto/125visual4.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22969020
SALADO: Salado Polychrome pottery, Tonto National Monument
Roosevelt Red Ware, also known as Salado Red Ware and Salado Polychrome, is a late prehistoric pottery tradition found across large portions of Arizona and New Mexico. The tradition involves the combination of red, white, and black paint in varying configurations along with compositional and morphological characteristics. This ceramic tradition begins about AD 1280-1290 and lasts until at least AD 1450 based on tree-ring dating.
By Wikipedia Loves Art participant "artifacts" - Uploaded from the Wikipedia Loves Art photo pool on Flickr, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8894921
HOHOKAM: Pre-Columbian ceramic pottery from the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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Photo: Andreas Praefckederivative; Museum Rietberg; Schaudepot Amerika Töpferei. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24089562
MOGOLLON: Classic Mimbres .
Ceramics, especially bowls, produced in the Mimbres region are distinct in style and painted with geometric designs and representational images of animals, people, and cultural icons in black paint on a white background. Some of these images suggest familiarity and relationships with cultures in northern and central Mexico. The elaborate decoration suggests the Mimbres Mogollons enjoyed a rich ceremonial life.
Mimbres bowls are often found associated with burials, typically with a hole punched out of the center, known as kill holes. Bowls with kill holes have been commonly found covering the face of the interred person. However, archaeological evidence suggests that most potteries were not buried with the dead. Wear marks on the insides of bowls show they were actually used, not just produced as burial items.
