Polychrome Southwest pottery

In this post I'm wnat to discuss Southwest  "polychrome" pottery, particularly ancient pottery of Northern Mexico, meaning that created between 1200ad and 1450ad, though of course the artistic tradition was started much earlier and continues to today in modern interpretations of ancient art and design forms.

I simply don't have any photos of this ware, you'll have to search out the books on Casas Grandes and see for yourself.

Anyway, over Christmas break I became familar with an interesting book titled "Casas Grandes and the Ceramic Arts of the Ancient Southwest".  This is an amazing picture book published by University of Chicago.  The text is so-so, but forget that for now.

BACKGROUND:  Many know of Casa Grande in western central New Mexico.  However, 90 miles south of the Mexican border (from New Mexico) an interesting cultural tradition of Pueblos and pottery began sometime before 1000 ad.  These large communities constructed and occupied, in waves of occupation and abandonment multi story adobe cities and flourished until around 1450ad, though many of the old pueblos are still occupied today.

During the peak of this civilization (event 1200-1450) the Ceramics reached a remarkable design appex standing as (probably) the most original and technically advanced artistic traditions in the Americas.  What started as large seed jars used by an agraian communities, the jars eventually reached an artistic level that carried on throughout several centuries of alternate site occupancy and abandonment.

I went on to read several more books about what we know about this culture which adds up to very little, including what the designs they painted expressed.  They could be a language, pictorial stories or records, or a codex.  In some ways they are little different from North Coast totem poles or phoenician text/pictures.  No doubt these forms were connected to the Mayan of the Central Mexican Valley and the Aztacs, evolving into Anasazi and Papagoda cultures.  Bottom line, there has been lots of conjecture but no one really knows much about this culture or the people who lived in Casas Grandes during it's appex.

One thing the book, and other books completely fail to delve into , beyond mentioning it again and again in archaeological records, are the spindle whorls found in studies of these old sites.  These whorls indicate a strong plant fiber tradition based on cotton and the use of drop spindles used for making yarn.

Over winter quarter/12 I hope to try and replicate some of the ceramic styles of Polychrome.  I don't have any plans to achieve much success, but it should be interesting to see how hard it is to replace the technical standards of this unique earthenware.  The designs, being so personal and complicated are beyond the scope of this project. Further research in the production of cotton by this culture is in order.  I hope to have several pieces of "modern polychrome" pottery ready for the summer 2012 Mighty Tieton show.    I'm really quite curious what will come out of it.  In the meantime, if you are remotely interested in polychrome, check this book out and look and all the lovely pictures,,, it really is a unique book.  I hope to make up for this "picturless" post" with a post on the photos of Jo Miles.  Keep tuned.