Southwestern USA, central Arizona to the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico, Salado Culture, ca. 1275 to 1450. This is a gorgeous, large bowl for fans of the pottery of the ancient Southwest. It has a red exterior and an interior decorated in a brown/cream and black, with repeating geometric designs that look like a wave -- or maybe encircling paws -- the interpretation is up to you! Pottery of the Gila Polychrome style -- part of the larger Roosevelt Red Ware group -- was made using the coil-and-scrape method, with the surface of the bowls and other vessels being smoothed by sandstone, slipped, polished, and then decorated before firing. Red paint was made from hematite; black paint from iron, manganese, or charred organic materials. Gila bowls, like this one, tend to have a lifeline of dark paint around the rim. This pottery type had the widest range of any in the ancient Southwest, traded across hundreds of miles and used in the household, ceremonies, and burials. This wide spread and unified decorative style have led archaeologists to suggest that the designs are iconography of a large, regional cult. The Salado Culture is a mixture of the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi peoples, based in a major trade crossroads -- with ties to important places in the landscape like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, as well as connections to the luxury goods flowing north from Mesoamerica, like macaws and chocolate. Size: 13" W x 7.25" H (33 cm x 18.4 cm)

Provenance: Ex-private M. Gonzalez collection, San Francisco, California, USA

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#113747

Some small and difficult to see stabilized cracks to rim; otherwise beautiful condition.