Geometric Bowl

A fine Mimbres geometric bowl, 1100 AD. New Mexico, USA Diameter: 8 ¾". Of classical form, the bowl with the interior painted in bands of open white compartments with serrated edges and alternating horizontal lines, in black on a white slip field. Fine example. Property of an East Coast private collector. Mint condition.

Mimbres pottery:

The pottery produced in the Mimbres region, often finely painted bowls, is distinct in style and is decorated with geometric designs and figurative paintings 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 indicates that these people enjoyed a rich ceremonial life. Early Mimbres Black-on-white pottery, called Boldface Black-on-White (now called Mimbres Style I), is primarily characterized by bold geometric designs, although there are also a few early examples of human and animal figures.

Over time, both geometric and figurative designs became increasingly sophisticated and diverse. Classic Mimbres Black-on-White pottery (Style III) is characterized by elaborate geometric designs, refined brushwork, including very fine linework, and may include figures of one or more animals, humans, or other images bounded either by simple rim bands or by geometric decoration. Birds figure prominently on Mimbres pots, including images such as turkeys feeding on insects and a man trapping birds in a garden; fish are also common.

Mimbres bowls are often found associated with burials, typically with a hole punched out of the center. Most commonly Mimbres bowls have been found covering the face of the interred person. Wear marks on the insides of bowls show they were actually used, not just produced as burial items.

Mimbres pottery is so distinctive that until fairly recently, the end of its production around AD 1130-1150 was equated with the "disappearance" of the people who made it. More recent research indicates that substantial depopulation did occur in the Mimbres Valley, but some remnant populations persisted there.[7] Both there and in surrounding areas, people changed their pottery styles to more closely resemble those of neighboring culture areas, and dispersed into other residential sites with different types of architecture.

Geographic location:

The Mogollon settled high-altitude desert areas in what is today New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua and western Texas. Their geographical region is in some texts subsumed within a larger geographic area referred to as Oasisamerica.[8][9]

Archaeological record:

Archaeological sites attributed to the Mogollon culture are found in the Gila Wilderness, Mimbres River Valley, along the Upper Gila river, Paquime and Hueco Tanks, an area of low mountains between the Franklin Mountains to the west and the Hueco Mountains to the east. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was established as a National Monument on 16 November 1907. It contains several archaeological sites attributed to the Mimbres branch. At the headwaters of the Gila, Mimbres populations adjoined another more northern branch of the Mogollon culture. The TJ Ruin, for example, is a Classic Mimbres phase pueblo, however the cliff dwellings are Tularosa phase. The Hueco Tanks State Historic Site is approximately 32 mi (51 km) northeast of El Paso, Texas. This site is culturally and spiritually significant to many American Indians, partially due to the pictographs that can be found throughout the region, many of which are thousands of years old.

Descendants:
The area originally settled by the Mogollon culture was eventually filled by the unrelated Apache people, who moved in from the north. However, the modern Pueblo people in the southwest claim descent from the Mogollon and related cultures,[10][11] although these people generally assert that their descent was from more than one group and location. Archaeologists believe that the Western Pueblo villages of the Hopi and Zuñi are potentially related to the Mogollon [12]

Notes:
Jump up ^ "Mogollon". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.
1. Jump up ^ Haury, Emil W. The Mogollon Culture of Southwestern New Mexico. Medallion Papers No. XX. Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona, 1936.
2. Jump up ^ Cordell, Linda, Archaeology of the Southwest, 2nd edition. Academic Press, San Diego, 1997.
3. Jump up ^ Fagan, Brian M. Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent, 4th edition. Thames and Hudson, New York, 2005. ISBN 0500285322.
4. Jump up ^ Brody, et al.[page needed]
5. Jump up ^ Lekson, Stephen H. Archaeology of the Mimbres Region, Southwestern New Mexico. BAR International Series 1466. Archaeopress, Oxford, 2006.
6. Jump up ^ Nelson, Margaret C. Abandonment, Continuity, and Reorganization: Mimbres During the 12th Century. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1999.
7. Jump up ^ Brody et al. 23
8. Jump up ^ Austin and Lujan 38
9. Jump up ^ Skibo et al. 234
10. Jump up ^ Kelly, Shannon. "Mogollon Rim, Arizona.". Land Use History of North America: Colorado Plateau. Retrieved 29 jan 2013.
11. Jump up ^ Gregory, David A., and David A. Willcox, eds. Zuni Origins: Toward a New Synthesis of Southwestern Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2007. ISBN 978-0816524860

References:
¢ Augstin, Alfredo López and Leonardo López Luján. Mexico's Indigenous Past. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8061-3214-3.
¢ Fewkes, J. Walter. The Mimbres: Art and Archaeology. Avanyu Publishing, Albuquerque, New Mexico, republished 1993. ISBN 0-936755-10-5.
¢ Brody, J. J., Steven Le Blanc, and Catherine J. Scott. Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest: Essays. New York: Hudson Hills, 1983. ISBN 978-0-9339-2046-0.
¢ Noble, David Grant. Ancient Ruins of the Southwest. Northland Publishing Company, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1995. ISBN 0-87358-530-5.
¢ Powell-Marti, Valli S., and Patricia A. Gilman. Mimbres Society. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2006.
¢ Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and Hudson, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
¢ Skibo, James M., Michael W. Graves, Miriam T. Stark. Archaeological Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8165-2517-1.
¢ Woosley, Anne I., and Allan J. McIntyre. Mimbres Mogollon Archaeology: Charles C. Di Peso's Excavations at Wind Mountain. University of New Mexico Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8263-1674-5
Further reading
¢ Anyon, Roger A., and Steven A. LeBlanc. The Galaz Ruin: A Prehistoric Mimbres Village in Southwestern New Mexico. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1984. ISBN 0-8263-0748-5.
¢ Brody, J. J. Mimbres Painted Pottery. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2005. ISBN 978-1-9306-1866-4.
¢ Diehl, Michael W., and Steven A. LeBlanc. Early Pithouse Villages of the Mimbres Valley and Beyond: The McAnally and Thompson Sites in their Cultural and Ecological Contexts. Papers No. 83. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 2001. ISBN 0-87365-211-8.
¢ Diehl, Michael W. (2007) "Mogollon Trajectories and Divergences" in Zuni Origins: Towards a New Synthesis of Southwestern Archaeology, edited by David A. Gregory and David R. Wilcox. pp. 146“164. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8165-2486-0
¢ Hegmon, Michelle (2002) "Recent Issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest" Journal of Archaeological Research 10(4): 307-357.
¢ Hegmon, Michelle, Margaret C. Nelson, and Susan M. Ruth (1998) "Abandonment and Reorganization in the Mimbres Region of the American Southwest." American Anthropologist 100(1):148-162.
¢ LeBlanc, Steven A. The Mimbres People: Ancient Pueblo painters of the American Southwest. Thames and Hudson Ltd, New York, 1983, ISBN 0-500-39017-7
¢ Nelson, Margaret C. and Michelle Hegmon (2001) "Abandonment is not as it seems: An Approach to the Relationship Between Site and Regional Abandonment." American Antiquity 66(2):213-235.
¢ Nelson, Margaret C., Michelle Hegmon, Stephanie Kulow, and Karen Gust Schollmeyer (2006) "Archaeological and Ecological Perspectives on Reorganization: a Case Study from the Mimbres Region of the U.S. Southwest." American Antiquity 71(3):403-432.
¢ Reid, Jefferson and Stephanie M. Whittlesey. Prehistory, Personality, and Place: Emil W. Haury and the Mogollon Controversy (University of Arizona Press; 182 pages; 2010). Examines the controversy occasioned by the American archaeologist's identification of the Mogollon as a people distinct from their Pueblo and Hohokam neighbors.
¢ Shafer, Harry J. Mimbres Archaeology at the NAN Ranch Ruin. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 2003. ISBN 0-8263-2204-2
¢ Shafer, Harry J. "Architecture and Symbolism in Tansitional Pueblo Development in the Mimbres Valley, SW New Mexico." 1995 Journal of Field Archaeology 22(1): 23-47.
¢ Shafer, Harry J, Marianne Marek, and K. J. Reinhard, "A Mimbres Burial with Associated Colon Remains from the NAN Ranch Ruin, New Mexico." 1989. Journal of Field Archaeology 16: 17-30.
¢ Shafer, Harry J. and Robbie L. Brewington, "Microstylistic Changes in mimbres Black-on-White Pottery: Examples from the NAN Ruin, Grant County, New Mexico" 1995. Kiva 64(3): 5-29. (Source: Wikipedia)

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