Southwestern USA, Four Corners region, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, area, Pueblo II (Anasazi) period, ca. 900 to 1030 CE. A beautiful hand-built pitcher of an avian, or duck, inspired form with a customary Anasazi-Chaco design painted across its exterior. Scholars believe that many of these designs were inspired by weather and landscape phenomenon in the high desert areas which the Anasazi-Chaco tribes resided in. Completed in the renowned black-on-white fashion, the design is a series of delineated jagged zig zag registers with linear and cross-hatched patterns exercised within them. A small strap handle on the obverse, beautifully accents its duck-form silhouette. Size: 6.5" L x 5.3" W x 7.25" H (16.5 cm x 13.5 cm x 18.4 cm)
Pottery of this kind is some of the most important found in the ancient Southwest. The Chaco Project, the major excavations of Chaco Canyon (today a National Historical Park that is well worth a visit), recovered more of this pottery than any other style. Chaco was the center of the ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture, a vast city of monumental architecture, including massive stone Great Houses of multiple stories and kivas of all sizes. Roads from Chaco Canyon radiated to outlying settlements for hundreds of miles, and it seems to have been a religious, social, and trade hub for a vast region. Today many Native peoples in the Southwest connect their own histories to Chaco, seeing it as a stop along their sacred migrations.
Provenance: private Los Angeles collection, California, USA, acquired April 2021; ex-Dan Walter collection, Winslow, Arizona, USA, before 2000
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#165409
Condition
Repaired and professionally restored from a few pieces, though presents well with tiny hairline fissures visible. Light fading to painted program in areas. Minor chipping to rim. Otherwise in great condition, with an intriguing silhouette and traditional Anasazi - Chaco painted design.