In the earlier days, pottery was rarely seen as artistry or a pastime activity. Each potter has their own taste, and this is often seen in the final project. American Indian pottery incorporates a variety of styles. However, the American Indians had to rely on clay, water, and their hands to construct pottery. In modern times, many tools are available which make pottery making a little easier.
American Indian pottery was also commonly used to store items. Through pottery making, they were able to create their own water bowls, cooking bowls, utensils, etc. As the first nation of North America, the Native Americans living in Canada, the United States, and Mexico had to craft everything from hand. Pottery making is a timeless art, which is very difficult to master. Among the items found may include authentic American Indian pottery. To do so, it may require visiting country towns or browsing antique stores. Today, locating quality pottery is difficult. Therefore the Museum Resources Division (MRD) Conservation Unit designed and implemented a survey of the entire collection in which each pot was assessed and prioritized in terms of conservation treatment needed.American Indian Pottery American Indian pottery consists of beautifully constructed art pieces which have been a part of Indian culture for centuries. In order to safely move these important archaeological ceramics to the new facility, the pots must be in a condition to withstand handling, packing, transport, and then unpacking and re-storage at the new facility. Therefore, the archaeological pottery will be moved to the new Center for New Mexico Archaeology (CNMA). The Move to the Center for New Mexico ArchaeologyĬurrent storage conditions for the pottery collection are overcrowded, fragmented and difficult to access for study and education. Importantly, the collections of Ancestral Pueblo pottery have offered artistic inspiration for contemporary Pueblo potters. Pottery’s raw materials and manufacturing techniques offer insights about life in our region, including food preparation and storage, interaction and trade, and continuity and change in symbolic systems in the American Southwest. They are actively accessed for research, education, publications, and exhibition purposes by archaeologists, students, scholars, Native artists, museum curators, and educators. Pottery as a resource: MIAC pottery collections are not simply warehoused. The archaeological, or, excavated collections, range from the earliest known Mogollon (AD 400) pots to pottery from the 1600s, after Spanish contact.
Together, they represent the most complete assemblage of indigenous New Mexico ceramics anywhere in the world. Landis Smith, Conservator The Collection: The Museum’s collection of nearly 5000 whole archaeological ceramic vessels, together with 4500 historic and contemporary vessels manufactured during the 18 th–21 st centuries, form a continuous record of 1600 years of human habitation and indigenous pottery making in New Mexico.
Pottery is the best record of human habitation in the Southwest-every group made it, and it does not disintegrate as do the more fragile materials such as baskets, wood, and textiles. The continuity of pottery is unbroken, from the earliest known examples in the Museum’s collections to the contemporary work of today it is a living tradition. We see it everywhere on the landscape, scattered over the ancestral Pueblo sites and in the villages today. 1600 years of American Indian Pottery in New Mexico