1. Mimbres Pottery

2. The decorations often tell a story about the maker or culture.
Some stories are historical. While others are fictional.

3. What could these bowls be representing?

4. Location
Mimbres pottery is found in the Southwestern region of the United States, specifically in the Mimbres Valley of New Mexico.

5. The pottery dates from about 100-1150 AD
The 3 main groups of people attributed to this pottery are:
Anasazi
Mogollon
Hohokam

6. These groups of people are believed to have migrated to North America from Asia by a land bridge across the Bering Straight before 8000BC. This land bridge was eventually covered with water and these people of the Americas were isolated. They developed with essentially NO influence from other cultures. Because of this isolation pottery from the Americas had a style that was different from other areas of the world.

7. The Pottery from these cultures is the only record we have of their existence. The people who lived in the are mysteriously disappeared after 1500 AD.
………….?

8. Mimbres Pottery 4 main functions
Prepare and serve food/store grains and seeds
Carry and store water
Hold ceremonial offerings
Used as funerary objects-they were buried upside down over the face of the dead
Why do you think pottery was the most common thing found from this culture?

9. Their bowls were important, therefore they were buried with their owners.
They were then protected in the ground from the elements.
Some of these pots have been dug up and dishonored by “treasure hunters” and have been sold for upwards of $20,000!

10. Design and decoration
One main feature you will notice about the Mimbres bowls is that they are found with a hole punched through the bottom. They believed this hole released the spirit of the owner when they died.

11. Design and decoration The colors of the pottery are:
Black, white, red (or orange), brown (buff)
They are decorated using colored clay slip or earth pigments
Most pots were built by pinching, coiling, or using molds.
The form is often “squat” or short.

12. Design and decoration
Designs are often geometric and depict an animal or human figure.
They painted their pots with highly ordered, often symmetrical painting of daily activities such as weaving, planting, grinding corn as well as animal and human forms.

17. Common set-up of designs A A A B A B A A A B A