Mimbres_Bowl

Mimbres Bowl The Mogollon people took their name from the Mogollon Mountains in New Mexico. From 200 B.C. until about A.D. 1300 their culture flourished. During the Mimbres period (A.D. 1050- c. 1300), the fifth and final period of their short history, they built apartment buildings and drainage systems, and also created what is considered the most important and beautiful pottery from the American Southwest. While their disappearance remains a mystery, their pottery offers great insight into the Mogollon belief system. A quintessential Mimbres piece, this bowl is decorated with geometric designs rendered in the classic black-on-white style. The shapes represent the Mogollons' six perceived directions of movement, and the shamanistic figure of the quail seen here is typical of the Mogollons' realistic art. Just as often, Mogollon artisans painted fantastic images -- mammals with fishtails, for example, or wings. Many bowls featured scenes of animal-to-human transformation, an indication that the pots were used during religious events. Some archaeologists mogollon, pottery, bowl, mogollons, mimbres, period, new, mogollons', mexico, geometric, fantastic, during, considered, american, ad, 1300, wound, wings, while, way, until, unmarked, under, typical, trend, transformation, took, systems, system, symbolically, swirling, surmise, style, spiritual, spirit, southwest