**First Time At Auction**

Native American, Midwest to Southeastern United States, Caddo / Mississippian, ca. 1200 to 1700 CE. A massive blackware pottery bowl incised with double spiral motifs across the shoulder. The vessel rests on a rounded but stable base, the walls curving up to the rim, the surface is highly burnished and smooth and nearly reflective under lights. The material used consists of a shell temper mixture and black slip, as the fine-grained clay from the regions often shrinks excessively, and the addition of shell particles reduces this shrinkage greatly when firing. The engraved motif is characteristic of Caddo pottery, and the spirals probably conveys a connection to other life or worlds, an unending cycle of life and death - an elegant and timeless pattern! Size: 15.5" Diameter x 8.5" H (39.4 cm x 21.6 cm)

Caddoan pottery was the finest produced by the Mississippian culture, with very thin walls, intricate motifs, and well-proportioned shapes. These ceramics are largely considered the apex of the art of the Southeast. According to the Sam Noble Museum (Oklahoma's Museum of Natural History), "We will never fully understand the underlying social and spiritual significance of the meanings intertwined within the designs of Caddo pottery. This knowledge was passed down orally and was not recorded by early European explorers, so it has since been partially lost through attempts by the United States government in the 19th and 20th centuries to overwhelm and assimilate the Caddo people. Caddo people began an earlier rapid change after their first contacts with Spanish colonists in the 1500s. Smallpox, measles, cholera and other European diseases ravaged the Caddo and reduced their population by 95 percent before 1700. Archaeological evidence reveals larger villages along the Arkansas, Red, and Ouachita rivers were abandoned and a change from burial of elites only in mounds to community mortuaries during this time period."

Please note this item falls under the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act and is not eligible for international shipping. Native American, Alaska Native, & Native Hawaiian objects are only eligible to ship within the United States.

Provenance: private Pennsylvania, USA collection, acquired before 2004

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#177043

Professionally repaired and restored. Infill with new material along break lines and fissures are nearly indiscernible. Minor surface nicks and chips. Nice burnished luster throughout.